Thai police raid expat bridge club in Pattaya after acting on illegal gambling ring tip off

Video taken by the authorities showed police striding into the room as the players carried on with their games

Nightlife in Pattaya, Thailand (Rex)

When police arrived at the sedate expat bridge club in the Thai resort town of Pattaya, the elderly card players were unconcerned. They laughed among themselves and carried on – after all they knew they were doing nothing wrong.

However, moments later the 12 Britons and 20 other, mainly Western, foreigners found themselves under arrest and being helped into the back of a police van. It was the start of a “thoroughly nasty” experience that saw them locked up for 12 hours until the early hours of 4 February.

Acting on a tip-off about an illegal gambling ring, about 50 officials, police and even soldiers raided the Jomtien and Pattaya Bridge Club, founded in 1994, on 3 February.

Video taken by the authorities showed police striding into the room as the players carried on with their games. One woman smiles awkwardly towards the officials, and as someone reads out the scores a voice can be heard telling police: “This is not gambling; this is playing.”

Police were unconvinced and appeared to believe that money would have changed hands later. They boxed up evidence, including cards, score books and computers, and arrested all 32 players, including the British organiser, Jeremy Watson, 74.

The head of the Asia-Pacific Bridge Federation tried to persuade the police that nothing illegal was going on. But the group have been charged with breaking a 70-year-old law barring players from having more than 120 cards. The players were released after paying bail of about £96.