A man with multiple criminal convictions reported to the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) on Tuesday and acknowledged a charge of persuading other people, directly or indirectly, to engage in illegal online betting.
Jirayu Yim-ampai, alias Keng Laiprang, reported to Pol Lt Gen Worawat Watnakhonbancha, the CCIB commissioner, responding to a police summons.
Pol Maj Gen Wiwat Kamchamnan, CCIB deputy commissioner, said Mr Jirayu posted videos on TikTok inviting people to apply to place bets on websites, leading to a police investigation.
Subsequently, CCIB police with court warrants searched three locations – in Bangkok, Pathum Thani and Chiang Rai – and seized a CPU, an iMac computer, a MacBook computer, two Promac computers, 14 mobile phones and four bank deposit passbooks as evidence of suspected wrongdoing.
A summons was subsequently issued for Mr Jirayu to report to CCIB police to hear the charge.
Mr Jirayu allegedly admitted to persuading people to gamble online via advertising on TikTok. He said he had been hired by the administrator of a gambling website and paid 250,000-300,000 baht a month. He was neither the owner of the website nor a shareholder in it.
In August 2017, Mr Jirayu, known as Keng Laiprang, was sentenced by the Criminal Court to three years and four months in prison and fined 280,000 baht after being found with crystal methamphetamine in his possession in while serving time in Khlong Prem Prison for a robbery in 2003.
On March 21, 2023, he was arrested by Khlong Luang police in Pathum Thani for persuading people through advertising to gamble. The Thanyaburi Court sentenced him to six years in prisson, suspended for one year, and a fine of 3,000 baht.
Mr Jirayu was once a leading actor, starring in the film “A Prayer Before Dawn”, and made an appearance at the film festival in Cannes, France.