Acting on a tip-off, officers from the Phuket Provincial Police and Phuket City POlice entered the venue, described by police as located on Thepkrasattri Rd in Moo 6, Ratsada, in the SuperCheap main branch area.
Officers found Ukrainian national Oleksandr Shpetnyi acting as the dealer and three Russian nationals, named as Evgenii Vylegzhanin, Rodion Elonov and Ruslan Kolontyrskii, playing poker.
Russian national Ekaterina Morozova was involved as exchanging betting chips for cash, police reported.
Betting chips marked to the value of B647,525 were seized in the raid, police noted.
Also seized was one professional poker table, three decks of cards, a Samsung computer, an Apple MacBook Air and a ledger marking bets placed and paid,
Police said the venue was known as a regular venue for illegal gambling
Gamblers used chips instead of cash, or used cryptocurrencies to place bets in order to hide the money used and to avoid it being confiscated by the authorities, police noted in their report.
All five suspects were taken to the Phuket City Police Station. Vlegzhanin, Elonov and Kolontyrski all admitted to the charge with illegal gambling, police reported.
Shpetny and Morozova were charged with organising illegal gambling, but Morozova denied the charge, police added.