Meanwhile, a university student in Chiang Mai, who had shown no previous interest in gambling, put his future in jeopardy when he allegedly snatched gold necklaces to repay debts owed from betting on the World Cup.

Deputy Metropolitan Police chief Maj-General Jes Mongkolhatthi, who heads an anti-gambling taskforce during the World Cup, said that from June 9 until Saturday, police had arrested many football gamblers and seized Bt44.5 million.

On Sunday, police arrested five bookies and 26 punters and seized cash worth Bt41,250.

Police had blacklisted 12 major bookies, each believed to have working capital of up to Bt10 million with bets being arranged 24 hours a day. But they were able to avoid arrest as they constantly changed their betting methods, Jes said.

In Chiang Mai, Theerawat Saengboonreung, 23, a fourth-year engineering student at the Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna, was arrested yesterday morning for snatching two gold necklaces worth over Bt50,000 from a gold shop. He allegedly confessed to needing Bt20,000 to pay a debt to a bookie after Serbia lost 6-0 to Argentina on Friday night.

Employees of Thong Thaweethong 5 gold shop on Suthep Road rang the police emergency line at 9am after a man aged about 25 years old and pretending to be a customer snatched gold necklaces and fled on a red Honda Dream motorbike. At 10am, Teerawat, who fitted the profile from the shop's security camera, was spotted by police and knocked to the ground as he tried to escape on his motorcycle. Police found the stolen necklaces on him.

Teerawat's parents Thak and Boonhing said they were shocked because their son was a good young man with no known links to gambling.

One of his lecturers said Theerawat had never shown any interest in gambling. Other teachers and students were clearly concerned about the incident.