World Cup Fever is all the rage now, and Thai people are glued to their TV sets for a month-long football extravaganza. However, it is feared that many people will get involved in football gambling, published today BangkokPost.com.
According to an Abac poll, more than 800,000 Thais are expected to gamble on World Cup matches, and about two billion baht will change hands. Of these gamblers, 107,090 are college students, who are expected to spend altogether 103 million baht.
Respondents said they would gamble among friends or place bets with underground bookmakers. Nearly 10% said they would borrow money to bet on football matches. About 62% said they were not worried about being arrested for gambling.
The estimated number of gamblers is much higher than in the 2002 World Cup, when about 200,000 Thais took part in gambling. However, the amount of money involved will be less than in 2002, when nine billion baht worth of bets were placed. The government should not turn a blind eye to this problem. Football should be viewed as sport, not something to be gambled on.
Source: MediaGambling
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