Thailand Blocks 945,075 Gambling URLs in Fiscal 2026

Key Points

• 835,207 of the 945,075 blocked URLs were shut down thanks to court orders, and almost 750,000 of those were caught by the ministry going over the internet with a fine-tooth comb.
• After May, court-ordered blocks slowed right down to about 50,000 a month, while online platforms started pulling links off the internet at a much faster rate.
• The police are now saying that demand hasn’t actually fallen, and scary as it sounds, more than 4 million Thais aged 15 to 25 have gotten drawn into online gambling already.

Thailand Blocks a Massive 945,075 Gambling URLs in 2026, But What Does the Huge Number Really Prove?

Almost a million gambling links were blocked in Thailand over the last year, but the police insist people are still placing bets as much as ever. That contradiction runs right through the statement the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DES) put out on 6 October. The DES reckoned they’d blocked 945,075 gambling-related URLs between October 2025 and September 2026. On paper, that sounds like a crushing defeat, but if you take a closer look, it’s a pretty complicated story about how people are finding these links, how they get removed, and what the number can and can’t tell us.

The Breakdown of the 945,075 Figure

The courts were the ones really doing the heavy lifting here. Court-ordered blocks took down 835,207 URLs, and another 109,868 got yanked after the ministry talked digital platforms into pulling them.

According to the ministry, its proactive approach relies on the use of artificial intelligence to locate and verify gambling websites, as well as citizen tips. Therefore, almost nine out of ten court-ordered blocks have originated with the ministry rather than the police. Most of the speed is provided by WebD, the enforcement platform used by the ministry. The platform gathers evidence, files court petitions electronically, and delivers blocking orders directly to internet providers.

There is one piece of information which changes the way each of the above numbers should be understood. DES has counted URLs, but not websites, domains, or operators.

What the 5 October Meeting Generated?

The yearly total resulted from the meeting between DES Minister Chaichanok Chidchob and the Stop Gambling Foundation, as well as three youth and family associations. From that meeting a four-step action plan with definite goals was developed.

Firstly, citizens, including youth, would be provided with a mechanism for reporting gambling content and sharing their experiences. Secondly, a working group would analyse the received reports, collaborate with TikTok and Meta platforms, and provide useful data to the Royal Thai Police. Thirdly, DES would request search engine providers to make gambling sites harder to discover in search results. Fourthly, the ministries of education and interior, together with security agencies, would launch awareness campaigns targeting children and students.

How Has the Count Increased Over the Year?

The ministry provided the total gradually throughout the year. As of 11 January, 220,486 URLs of all types were blocked, including, according to Bangkok Post, 183,977 gambling links. The March government release showed 362,482 gambling blocks out of 437,473 by the end of February.

As of 31 May, the number of gambling blocks has risen to 673,699, including 78,796 only in May, as reported by The Gambler in June. Comparing these figures to the annual total provides one with a pattern. Court-ordered blocks were averaging around 79,500 per month until May, after which they dropped to an average of 50,000 per month.

The World Cup Put the Government’s System to the Test

With the World Cup on, the authorities really stepped up the enforcement of football betting. Between June 1st and June 18th, DES blocked a whopping 13,888 links and pages, warning people off sharing them because doing so could have landed them in hot water under Section 14 of the Computer Crime Act.

The police, meanwhile, ran their own operation between June 6th and July 19th. According to The Nation, officers took action against 4,576 gambling websites, 617 bookmakers and a staggering 8,181 gamblers. The amount of money moving through those sites was a staggering 20.463 billion baht. While those are police numbers and can’t be directly added to the ministry’s totals, it gives a pretty good idea of just how much dirty money was flowing through those dodgy betting sites at the height of the World Cup.

Police Say the Demand for Betting Has Not Fallen Away

Now things start to get kind of uncomfortable for the government. On May 31st, the police said that since October, they had blocked 717,425 gambling URLs but also admitted that demand hadn’t dropped a bit. In fact, police data cited by SiGMA showed that by early 2026, a whopping 4 million Thais aged 15 to 25 had been lured into online betting for the first time. It seems the lure of easy money was too much for many of them, thanks to social media influencers, livestreams and quick-fix videos that promise quick cash. And to make things even trickier, payments have started moving to corporate accounts, PayPal, cross-border middlemen and even cryptocurrency, which makes tracking the money flowing in pretty much impossible.

Meta, Not a New Partner and Definitely Not a Simple One

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society’s plan names Meta, but let’s be honest, this isn’t exactly a new partnership. Back in February, the Royal Thai Police said they’d already blocked more than 52,000 Facebook pages between October 2025 and February 2026 as part of their joint work with Meta. Those pages were all about online betting, shady loans and fake job ads, and both sides agreed to review progress every month.

But what’s even more interesting is that the same company is now in court with Thai consumers. On June 8th, the Thailand Consumers Council filed a civil lawsuit against Meta, LINE, Apple and various banks on behalf of 10 scam victims. This one’s about fake investment adverts, not betting, and the victims lost over 230 million baht. Still, it shows just how suspicious Thais are getting about how well platforms police themselves.

Search Has Always Been a Weak Link

Betting operators have used search engines to get at Thai users in the past. Remember 2023, when Thai PBS World broke the story of how hackers were using government websites under all 20 ministries to hide links to online betting sites? Over 30 million government URLs were affected, and that pushed those dodgy betting links right to the top of Google results. That’s why search visibility is just as big a deal as where a site is hosted.

What 945,075 Cannot Tell You?

It cannot demonstrate the number of operators on the market, the number of players, or bets placed. The number of blocked addresses that return under new names will not be shown as well. Compared with last year requires similar caution. Gambling blocks are 62,213, according to figures provided by the Ministry to iGaming Times, for fiscal 2024 and 2,059 for fiscal 2023. The use of AI check-ups and automatic court petitions has been introduced in recent years, thus growth in number is influenced by improved tools.

The legal framework is equally important in this issue. Gambling Act of 1935 in Thailand prohibits almost all types of gambling and permits only limited operations, including the state lottery. Online betting is not included, and the entertainment complex bill was withdrawn from consideration in 2025.

Expert Analysis: A Busy Machine Is Not Yet a Winning One

We believe that Thailand deserves to be praised for building a system that enables blocking of about 2,590 gambling URLs per day. At the same time, we think that the Ministry presents effort as success. These two things are not the same, and statements by the police themselves regarding demand prove the difference.

First, DES has not revealed how many court petitions are connected to 835,207 blocks, how often courts reject them, and how many blocked addresses return. Inability to obtain this information makes it impossible for anyone outside the ministry to know whether blocking wins or simply stays even.

Second, Meta is involved. Asking for cooperation with the platform sounds like a logical step, since these are the platforms where Thai youth see the advertisements. Meanwhile, the national consumer body is currently suing the same company for scam adverts which it states spread uncontrollably. In our opinion, Bangkok has to publish takedown times and repeat-offender rates before calling it cooperation.

And the biggest discussion that has remained untouched since the withdrawal of the casino bill is that with no legal alternative, enforcement has to take almost the whole burden of demand. This might be arguable; however, we consider 945,075 as evidence of a busy machine.