Major Crime - Solved

[Gaybutton]

Arrest of foreign bridge players in Pattaya 'tarnished Thailand’s image'

by Preechachan Wiriyanupappong

THE SUNDAY NATION
February 14, 2016

The recent raid on an expatriate bridge club after an allegation of "gambling" in Pattaya has raised eyebrows in a country where government efforts have been focused on promoting tourism and sport.

Early this month 50 police and military personnel stormed an upstairs room in the infamous beach resort of Pattaya. But rather than a den of iniquity, they found members of the Jomtien and Pattaya Bridge Club, which comprises foreign retirees. Officers nevertheless arrested all 32 people, 26 of them men. The club meets three times a week in a room above a restaurant, according to the Pattaya One website.

However, since no money changed hands, the players - mainly British with some Dutch and Scandinavian nationals, including a 84-year-old Dutch woman - were arrested under a Thai law from 1935 that says no one can possess more than 120 playing cards at a time.

Police seized cards, computers and a book of bridge results as "evidence". Another alleged offence related to the fact that the cards did not have an official government seal on the boxes.

The raid quickly became the talk of the town. Many people have voiced concern over what they say was the lack of evidence to warrant arresting the players, and the fact that bridge players is considered a sport - not gambling.

Shortly after, social media outlets were awash with negative comments. Some people said the raid had tarnished the image of the country, particularly at a time when the government is promoting tourism and sport.

On pantip.com, a popular Thai-language discussion forum, the subject was heavily discussed. A varsity student under the pseudonym "Neung Van Der Waals", who has been a bridge player for five years, created a forum post on the website that read: "Bridge is not gambling. A case study for the arrest of farangs playing bridge in Pattaya".

He said: "I can't believe this is happening in Thailand. It has really tarnished the tourism atmosphere in our country. Bridge, like the other mind sports such as chess and Go, is based on rules and competition like other sports and is available to older people, to whom it has brought a sense of inclusion and community.

"Bridge is a popular card game recognised as a sport. Since cards are necessarily required for bridge, therefore it's reasonable to have cards when playing bridge. This is clearly legal in line with the Gambling Act in 1935."

He explained that a book was used to record scores in bridge and not to record money. A calculator-like device seized in the raid was called a "bridgemate" and was used to record results of each round, he said.

To make it clear that playing bridge is not gambling, photos of people playing the game were cut from local newspapers and displayed on pantip.com forum with the caption: "Thailand hosted the 37th Asean Bridge Club Championships at Montien Hotel Bangkok last December.

Thailand captured gold medals in the senior team and the junior team events. General Yuthasak Sasiprapha, president of the Olympic Committee of Thailand, presided over the closing ceremony and congratulated the gold winners on their success on the same occasion."

If playing bridge is gambling, such a competition could not be held here. Further, the Thailand University Bridge Club was established to promote playing bridge at all varsities and no activity has been reported concerning gambling.

However, those arrested in Pattaya were held for 12 hours before being bailed for Bt5,000 each.

But none were charged after bridge league president Khunying Chodchoy Sophonpanich, a civic activist who is also a member of Thailand's most prominent banking family, stepped in to provide further information on bridge and how it is played for points and not money.

Aside from being played among local universities and contested at the SEA Games and Asian Games, bridge, like chess, could be included in the 2020 Olympics. A decision on that is expected to be made next year.

There seems to be no clear-cut answer on whether bridge is sport, as different governing bodies have different views. Sport England, for example, said a sport needs more exertion than "sitting at home reading a book".

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 79261.html

[2lz2p]

This is a link to article in Bangkok Post online edition today that mentions the raid -
http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/so ... ge-too-far

It points out that Bridge has been played Thailand long before other sports. Further, it gives some of the complexities of playing Bridge and notes that there is even a Thai University that has a course on playing Bridge. By the way, the photo showing the green card holding device is designed to hold Bridge cards, which are slightly smaller than the usual playing card size - thus no Excise stamp since that size of playing card used for Bridge tournaments is apparently not made in Thailand.

[Gaybutton]

no Excise stamp since that size of playing card used for Bridge tournaments is apparently not made in Thailand.

What? How dare they play with cards that weren't made in Thailand! Of course even if you buy cards made in Thailand, and I have no idea where they're even sold, once you buy them now you're fair game for playing with them at all.

The BIB are saying it's illegal to be in possession of 120 or more playing cards. The first question is why? The second question is the last time I checked, there are 52 cards in a deck - 54 if you count the jokers. If you are in possession of 2 decks of cards, now you have 108 cards. Where do the other 12 cards come from?

I've seen a lot of absurd, ridiculous things in my life, but I stand back in awe of this one. I'm waiting for a group of 7 year olds to be busted for playing Old Maid.

Why in the world the powers-that-be don't just say they didn't understand about Bridge and just drop this nonsense instead of prosecuting these people as if they are dangerous criminals goes beyond me.

Maybe the Bridge players need to think up a clever way to play - a simple little system - such as:

[Alex]

Since it's illegal to possess cards without a Thai excise stamp, there's nothing wrong with fining the players for that offence. For that alone that raid was over the top, but since it has happened already anyway...

[Gaybutton]

I'm wondering what the latest is regarding this story. Nothing more has been reported in any media that I can find. I hope the case has simply been dropped and this group is happily playing Bridge again.