Bridge club members not out of the woods yet
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There are one or two updates on the saga of the Pattaya bridge club. Our 30 members (two others escaped during the raid) are now trooping into Pattaya Police Station to collect their passports and driving licences. We cannot receive our Bt5,000 bail money
The remaining problem concerns our principal organiser, Jeremy Watson. His bail was much higher. Although the gambling nonsense has disappeared from the agenda, there remain technical matters of licensing and of card-playing legislation passed during the Japanese occupation of the early 1940s. If these charges were to be pressed, both club members and Khunying Chodcoy Soponvanich, president of the Thai bridge-club association, will be supporting Jeremy.
There is a great deal of misinformation in local and international media about this unfortunate business and we members are grateful to The Nation for its sensible and accurate reporting. Perhaps I could add that it was the civilian Banglamung licensing authorities who raided the club, bringing with them a full detachment of Pattaya reporters to ensure full publicity for the gambling arrests. That has most certainly happened.
Barry Kenyon
Pattaya
