The ease of access to online gambling has made young people more vulnerable to gambling as well as other criminal activities, a seminar was told on Thursday.
During the forum, the Thailand Youth Institute (TYI) and its network released a 2024 report on online gambling surveillance, which showed that online gambling contributed to crime, violence and suicide.
A proposal was then put forward calling on the government to take swift and comprehensive action to curb the negative impacts of online gambling on young people.
This includes the proactive and coordinated efforts by all sectors to combat illegal gambling websites, the establishment of rehabilitation centres for gambling addicts and harsher penalties for repeat offenders.
Surachate Phosaeng, deputy secretary-general of TYI, said that researchers found that many young people are involved in various aspects of online gambling, from being players to operating online gambling platforms themselves.
During the coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, online gambling saw a surge in activity as many people stayed home, Mr Surachate said.
Gambling website operators used "influencers", many of whom were young people with a large following, to promote gambling sites, he said.
"Even though several of these 'idols' have been prosecuted, these [types of] influencers are still used to promote gambling sites," he said.
Regarding efforts to block tens of thousands of illegal gambling websites, Mr Surachate said that only subdomains have been blocked while the primary domains remain intact, meaning these sites can still be accessed.
Gambling websites are easy to set up and licences can be obtained from countries where casinos are legal to operate primary domains, he added.
Pol Maj Gen Siriwat Deepor, acting commander of Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau's Division 1, told the seminar that online criminal activities continue to evolve and become a global issue.
He noted that the proposed amendment to the cybercrime law does not directly address online gambling but focuses on cybercrime, such as call centre scams.
