Govt intensifies crackdown on illegal online gambling ahead of World Cup 2026

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DES) has tightened its crackdown on illegal online gambling websites and social media pages ahead of World Cup 2026, which kicks off this month.

Deputy government spokeswoman Ploythalay Laksameesaengjan said today that the government is increasing its monitoring and blocking operations to handle a potential surge in gambling activities during the football tournament.

Between Oct 1 last year and May 31, the DES ministry, in cooperation with social media platforms and under court orders, has successfully blocked 673,699 URLs and pages associated with illegal gambling.

Of that total, 635,717 were blocked following direct court orders, while 37,982 fraudulent and gambling-related URLs were taken down through direct coordination with digital platforms.

Ploythalay noted that, in May alone, authorities blocked 78,796 illegal gambling links, consisting of 68,571 court-ordered blocks and 10,225 platform-coordinated takedowns.

To cope with the high-stakes tournament, the government has ordered the DES ministry to step up its surveillance. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is now being deployed to detect and flag illicit websites, which officials say allows for faster and more precise enforcement.

Concurrently, the Royal Thai Police's Cybercrime Investigation Bureau has been instructed to ramp up preventive measures, with a specific focus on protecting youth from being lured into online betting circles during the World Cup.

The spokesperson warned the public against sharing or promoting illegal digital content, reminding them that inadvertent involvement in distributing online gambling or scam links could violate Section 14 of the Computer Crime Act.