After being implicated as a bookmaker by a group of illegal lottery punters arrested previously, Boonchai Sornwissathanont, 40, was caught red-handed in the afternoon while he was keying lottery bets into a computer at his home in Nanthawan Village on Srinakarin Road.

Police said they seized 56 lottery tickets worth Bt1.9 million, 20 football tickets worth Bt23 million, Bt20,000 in cash, five books listing punters, three bank account books, a computer used for online football bets and a fax machine used to take lottery bets.

Boonchai allegedly confessed to police that he had been an underground lottery bookie for a long time before he decided to take football bets for the World Cup. Police charged him with operating gambling without permission.

Tourism police arrested two men on suspicion of being online football bookies on Friday at 11pm at their apartment in Soi Lat Phrao 41 in Bangkok's Chatuchak district.

Following a tip-off that they operated online gambling, police arrested Punyawat Saipaeng, 27, and Sirichai Trukkawirapat, 31, while they were watching the Germany-Argentina match.

They seized four computers with gambling home pages and found evidence of bets worth Bt5 million. The men reportedly confessed and police charged them with operating gambling without permission.