Several suspected Chinese gamblers sustained serious injuries after jumping from a second-floor window when Thai police raided a betting den.
Officers raided an address in the popular holiday resort city of Pattaya, the Thailand-based media outlet Thai PBS reported.
Detectives say the den catered to high-spending “VIP” Chinese poker players.
Chonburi Immigration Police, working with Tourist Police, surrounded a house in the Nong Prue Subdistrict after receiving a tip-off from a member of the public.
The whistleblower said they believed a group of Chinese nationals was illegally gambling in the house.
Officers followed up by dispatching an undercover agent disguised as a food delivery courier who confirmed the tip-off was correct.
‘Chinese Gamblers Jumped onto Hard Tile Floor’
Police subsequently raided the house where they said they found a group of Chinese gamblers “engrossed in a poker game.”
Panic ensued, with all the participants “scattering and trying to run away,” said police.
At least three of the suspects leaped from the windows, with all sustaining injuries when landing on the hard, tiled ground below.
Rescue workers reportedly provided first aid before rushing the injured suspects to a nearby hospital.
Police released video footage from the raid. This featured one apparently badly injured individual being carried to an ambulance on a stretcher, seemingly unable to move.
The video also showed police forcing a large group of suspects to sit on the floor as they read them their rights.
And police released images of gambling chips, score cards, and a range of other gambling paraphernalia seized at the scene.
A VIP Gambling Den
During a search of the house, authorities said they found evidence that the entire property had been transformed into a “VIP gambling den.”
They found rooms were equipped with poker tables, along with expensive gambling equipment. Investigators seized around 100,000 baht ($3,000) in cash.
Officers said they arrested 16 people at the scene, all Chinese nationals. Three of the arrestees were women, and the remainder were male, said a police official.
Police said they would examine the arrestees’ travel documents to determine if they had entered the country illegally or had overstayed their visas.
Detectives have initially charged all 16 suspects with illegal gambling-related offenses.
Earlier this year, Thai officials extradited a Chinese man suspected of operating the illegal Wanhe Soccer portal.
The portal, Chinese prosecutors say, was a front for a $73 million pyramid-type scam, whose victims were mainly based in Mainland China.
The suspect, surnamed Huang, initially fled to Cambodia before heading to Thailand, where he was eventually arrested.
Huang is currently in prison in China’s Tianjin Province, pending the start of his trial.
