Police clear Bridge club members as ‘informer with grudge’ fails to make playing with wrong cards charge stick

A heavy-handed police raid on a group of Bridge fanatics could have been the work of a secret informer with a grudge, British expats claim.

Some 50 officers arrested and questioned the pensioners for hours over suspicions of illegal gambling.

The 32 OAPs, including a Dutch woman aged 84, were told they were not “playing their cards right”, using too many as well as imported decks – even though the law enforcement authorities in Thailand have accepted no money was found.

The action by Pattaya Police has left club organisers fearing their ‘friendly’ gatherings may now be overstepping the country’s anti-gambling laws.

The police arrested the players – including 74-year-old Jomtien and Pattaya Bridge Club president Jeremy Watson – while equipment such as computers and a logbook of the players` scores were confiscated as evidence.

But club founder Barry Kenyon said there was a “spy” in the camp.

The former British honorary consul told Police Professional exclusively: “Of course, it was an awful error created by authority figures who don’t know contract bridge and clouded by a secret informer – we know who she is – who bore a grudge and wanted to create mayhem.

“She succeeded, I suppose.”

The club is insistent that no money changed hands between players but authorities found that the club`s many decks of cards may have broken Section 8 of the Playing Cards Act of 1935 stating that an individual is not allowed to possess more than 120 playing cards at any one time.

The officers also revealed that there was no official government seal on the card boxes, which they added to the list of alleged offences.

The pensioners who gather at Alto’s restaurant and bar in the resort of Pattaya claim Thai cards are of such “poor quality” that they have been forced to bring packs back from trips abroad – thereby contravening the official ones which are printed by the Department of Customs and Excise, and bear a government stamp.

One thing the police did have to wait for – the players to complete the game.

Mr Watson, who has lived in Thailand since 1969, said: “We took 45 minutes to finish. The police were just wandering around. There were 40 in the room and ten downstairs in case we tried to escape.”

The OAPs, who were taken to the police station in rented buses, were finally released at 3am after paying £100 bail money and having their passports confiscated.

Chodchoy Sophonpanich, the influential president of the Contract Bridge League of Thailand, also travelled to Pattaya on Thursday (February 4) to explain the game to authorities, and how it is played as a sport, not for money.

The club is “closed temporarily while we get a new licence to have cards on the premises,” it says on its website. The notice adds: “All problems have been solved with understanding by the authorities.”

The illegal gambling claims have been dropped, and most of the players have had their bail money and passports returned, added Mr Kenyon as the situation is finally ‘coming up trumps’ for the long-established club.

“It’s over now,” he added.