Bridge club in Pattaya raided

[Pleng]

Detaining an 84-year-old woman for 12 hours for playing bridge - I can't wait for this to hit the European press.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35491852

[hhfarang]

It even made the U.S. news...

"A vow by Thailand's junta to rid the country of foreign criminals has netted an unlikely group of outlaws -- elderly bridge players."

https://news.yahoo.com/thai-police-raid ... 00285.html

[T.I.G.R.]

Words fail me............

[caller]

Sometimes I think Thais are the most stupid people on this Earth. This is all over the UK press now.

[Spitfire]

This news story just shows how moronic the double standards are here. As pointed out by another poster, the locals gamble on everything all the time but I don't see cock-fights getting busted.......no, clamp down on the elderly foreigners who are just quietly playing a bit of Bridge or Cribbage because some farang-hater complained.

Give me a break. And in a last-ditch effort attempt to save face the cops fine everyone for being party to having more than 120 card of non-government issue/stamped/approved playing cards in violation of some obscure law that has not been enacted ever.......d'fuk!

Morons! Can you please be that anal with those that drive without licenses, no tax, no insurance.......erm, along with far too many other sections of those more dangerous to society.

From the Urban Dictionary......

Keystone Cops

The term is to be used to criticize a group for its mistakes, particularly if the mistakes happened after a great deal of energy and activity, or if there was a lack of coordination among the members of the group.

There are a lot of Keystone Cops running around in this project.

[STEVE G]

Also in the ways of Thailand, I imagine that this will end the problem:

Associated Press named the president of the bridge league as Chodchoy Sophonpanich, a civic activist who is also a member of Thailand’s most prominent banking family.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/f ... ub-pattaya

[jumusman]

Someone better tell the police that prostitution is also illegal in Thailand. I think there are some bars in certain parts of Thailand where prostitution is practiced. (Just don't bust the one's owned by the police of course)

[seveneleven]

They knowingly broke the law and considered themselves immune based on their presumed privacy. in their bridge gaming club
If they wanted to gamble, they should have done it in a country where gambling is legal.
I don't think it's right that they were busted, but I don't think it's right to defend them either. and say they were not doing anything wrong They knowingly broke the law.

[STEVE G]

They knowingly broke the law and considered themselves immune based on their presumed privacy. in their bridge gaming club
If they wanted to gamble, they should have done it in a country where gambling is legal.
I don't think it's right that they were busted, but I don't think it's right to defend them either. and say they were not doing anything wrong They knowingly broke the law.

They weren't gambling, they were playing for points and I doubt that they were aware of the 1932 law limiting the amount of playing cards to 120!

[seveneleven]

well in that case, why are the police bothering elderly people? There are plenty of criminals in Pattaya to pursue and have an overload of duty pursuing.

[dtaai-maai]

well in that case, why are the police bothering elderly people? There are plenty of criminals in Pattaya to pursue and have an overload of duty pursuing.

With such astonishing insight you should consider applying for a job with the police.

[Bristolian]

well in that case, why are the police bothering elderly people? There are plenty of criminals in Pattaya to pursue and have an overload of duty pursuing.

Becase they can and it was potentially high profile as it involved those pesky foreigners. However once more it has highlighted both incompetency and the the refusal to lose face issue. I forget which UK newspaper but one was using the line "A Bridge Too Far"

[seveneleven]

Can they still use their points when the get out of jail?

[Dannie Boy]

Extracts from today's UK press

A bridge (game) too far

A story reported across almost all of Friday's papers is the strange tale of a police raid on a bridge club in Thailand.
According to the Daily Mail, the police thought they were raiding an "illicit gambling den" in the beach resort of Pattaya. Instead they found members of the bridge club - mostly older British and Western expats - "sipping cups of green tea as they enjoyed their game".
Bridge playersImage copyrightReuters
The Independent says "the elderly card players were unconcerned... they knew they were doing nothing wrong", yet moments later the 12 Britons and 20 other foreigners "found themselves under arrest and being helped into the back of a police van".
The 32 bridge players were "quizzed for 12 hours then charged with violating gambling laws", reports the Sun.
The Guardian takes up the story: "Since no money was changing hands... the players... were held under a Thai law from 1935 stipulating that no-one can possess more than 120 playing cards at a time."
According to the Daily Express the group - whose ages ranged from 50 to 80 and included Australians, Norwegians, Swedes, and an 84-year-old Dutch woman - were released on bail for the equivalent of £100 each.
Former British honorary consul Barry Kenyon MBE, 68, is quoted in the Times as saying: "They [the police] saw the computer we had to record each player's bridge records on and must have thought something big was going on. It was all quite absurd".

[HHCanuck]

LOL it looks like the story is disappearing from Thai publications. Careful HH Forum moderators you may be visited by the boys in brown and green. I guess they didn't like being made a laughing stock of all over the world.