Cambodia says 24 casinos end online gambling as enforcement continues

A total of 24 casinos spread over three provinces have halted online gambling and taken away the equipment tied to those operations, Cambodian authorities said. The inspection results were made public by state news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse on October 1st, which attributed them to the Secretariat of the Ad Hoc Commission for Combating Online Scams (CCOS). Nationwide, the government had fixed September 30th as the date by which such operations had to stop.

Preah Sihanouk province accounts for 12 of the casinos, Banteay Meanchey for seven and Svay Rieng for five. Among the operations shut down were livestreamed gambling, soccer betting conducted online and online lotteries; the associated equipment was taken apart and carried off the sites. The secretariat restated the rule that gambling and betting over the internet are banned within casino grounds and beyond them alike.

Authorities will continue monitoring the locations and other sites nationwide, with violations facing legal action "without exception or leniency," AKP reported. Casinos breaching the measure could face licence revocation and other legal action.

The crackdown stems from a move by Prime Minister Hun Manet to halt online betting run out of casinos starting in October, which Interior Minister Sar Sokha made known in September. According to Sar Sokha, live gambling streamed from casinos made it harder to track financial flows whose origins were unclear.

New online gambling licences were no longer granted in Cambodia from 2019, and permits already in force were not renewed once they lapsed. The current step targets betting over the internet that kept running out of casino premises.

In a separate update, the secretariat reported that over 600 locations suspected of hosting scams had been cleared under the wider anti-scam push. By September, 18 casino licences had been withdrawn because of suspected online scam ties, and another nine stayed suspended while inquiries continued.

Where licences were revoked or suspended, the secretariat is still coordinating with gambling regulators, judicial authorities and the Cambodia Financial Intelligence Unit, it said. The aim is to seize, freeze and confiscate assets held by premises owners or by shareholders of casino companies tied to scam offences.