Thailand will work with Meta and TikTok to curb ads for illegal gambling

Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DE) is moving from takedown-by-takedown enforcement to platform cooperation, bringing Meta, TikTok and other social networks into its efforts against illegal gambling ads. For PSPs and operators watching Thailand, the key point is that the government is treating distribution channels, not just operators, as part of the enforcement target.

1. The DE said it will work with Meta, TikTok and other social media platforms to monitor ads for illegal gambling and pass the collected data to the Royal Thai Police for action. Until now, the ministry has identified this content using police data, AI tools and user complaints.
2. Gambling is fully prohibited in Thailand, but the illegal market is estimated at about 1.1 trillion baht, or around $34 billion. That scale explains why the authorities are treating ad distribution and access routes as a standing enforcement problem rather than a one-off cleanup.
3. In June, Thailand’s Consumer Protection Board filed a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the company of failing to properly control fraudulent advertising, including ads linked to illegal operators. For platforms and payment companies, that is a reminder that Thai enforcement is not limited to the gambling brands themselves.
4. From October 2025 to September 2026, the authorities blocked 835,207 gambling-related links by court order. Another 109,868 links were blocked with the help of digital platforms. The ministry stressed that these are URLs, not separate websites or operators.
5. The DE also plans to launch a reporting mechanism for citizens, work with search engines to restrict access to such sites through search results, and run awareness campaigns with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Interior and security agencies. The ministry’s line is straightforward: no single agency can handle illegal gambling alone, so the response has to involve the state, NGOs, platforms and the public.

For high-risk payment businesses, the practical takeaway is that Thailand is tightening pressure not only on gambling operators but on the traffic sources and online infrastructure around them. If a market starts treating ads, search visibility and URL blocking as one enforcement stack, payments usually do not stay out of the picture for long.