BANGKOK – “Just one more spin. One more try and I’ll win.”
That is what 37-year-old Myo Thant, a Myanmar citizen, tells himself every time he plays the jackpot on the illegal gambling app called “818 slots”, better known as the “Buffalo” game because of its logo.
“I have never gambled on anything before. I didn’t even know how to bet on football matches,” the mobile phone repair shop owner in Myanmar tells The Straits Times.
But in June 2025, he found out about the app through his customers and has been hooked ever since. Players place bets on the game using e-wallets or cryptocurrencies.
Illegal online gambling has become “one of the most significant and fastest-growing dimensions of transnational organised crime”…