Two sisters in Lampang face charges of running a gambling website that had about 700 million baht in circulation.

The women were arrested along with four staff members in raids on three houses in the northern province on Thursday.

Sisters Punika Arayasuwan, 41, and Pratthana Arayasuwan, 39, were arrested along with the four staff members — three men and one woman — who were website administrators and marketing staff.

Police had found that the website HPPOIPET had posted advertisements to persuade people to bet online. They then learned that the operation was run from three houses in Lampang.

When police arrived at one of the houses, they found the two sisters and staff chatting with gambling customers online. The location had a grocery shop in the front, while a bedroom inside had been fitted out with IT gear to run the website.

Ms Punika and Ms Pratthana told officers that they used to work for a casino in the Cambodian border town of Poipet, which attracts thousands of Thais.

When they returned to Thailand, their brother-in-law contacted a Cambodian operator to buy a franchise to run the HPPOIPET website in Thailand.

The two women said they had been running the business in Lampang for 7 years and received commissions of 10-20% of the amounts bet. The website had more than 5,000 customers, both Thais and Cambodians, and more than 700 million baht in circulation, according to police.