Thai Politician Questions Funding of MPs Amid Alleged Failure to Block Online Gambling Sites

Key summary

Sirichok Sopha, a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Songkhla and former member of the Pheu Thai Party, posted on his personal Facebook page on October 24, 2026, alleging that a political party pays MPs an extra monthly salary of 400,000 baht. Sopha stated that despite the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DE) claiming to have blocked nearly one million gambling URLs, major gambling sites remain accessible to Thai users. He cited specific examples of active sites including UFABET, 1XBET, bet365, M98, KUBET, MAXBET, Stake.com, SBOBET, W88, and 918KISS, noting that he personally checked 30 sites and found 29 accessible. Sopha questioned whether the government could afford to pay the alleged extra salaries if all gambling websites were actually shut down, suggesting a potential conflict of interest involving hundreds of millions of baht annually.