Cambodia launches joint casino inspections to enforce online gambling ban

Joint checks of casinos around Cambodia are due to begin this month, the Commercial Gambling Management Commission of Cambodia (CGMC) has said, as it moves to stop online betting being run from land-based venues. The state news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) reported the plan. Yeth Vinel, the CGMC's secretary-general, said the inspections would establish whether casinos holding land-based licences were staying inside the terms of those licences.

Where unauthorised online gambling is found, the CGMC would impose administrative sanctions and work with law enforcement to pursue criminal charges, Yeth Vinel said. The arrangements were discussed at a meeting on the afternoon of 5 October between the CGMC and the Secretariat of the Commission for Combating Online Scams (CCOS), with representatives from 16 capital and provincial jurisdictions that have casino operations. Labour officials, national police, immigration authorities, provincial administrations and prosecutors took part to coordinate the inspections.

Chhay Sinarith, a senior minister who serves as standing vice chairman of the CCOS and leads its secretariat, told AKP that the authorities would keep up firm action targeting every site tied to online scams.

The checks come after Prime Minister Hun Manet ordered a halt to online betting run out of casinos beginning in October. Sar Sokha, the interior minister, made the measure public in September and explained that live gambling streamed from casinos made it harder to track financial flows whose origins were unclear. The cut-off for winding down those operations was 30 September.

A previous enforcement report recorded that 24 casinos in Preah Sihanouk, Banteay Meanchey and Svay Rieng had halted online gambling and taken away the equipment used for it. Gambling livestreams, online soccer betting and online lotteries were among the activities involved.