Reports CAMBODIA MARKET REPORT
Contrary indicators Cambodia
Cambodia’s insatiable demand to
revitalise its casino market is akin to a hornet’s nest precariously
balanced on a rotten branch with a storm approaching. And you’ve
dropped a smoothie down your front.
Since the law on IRs and casinos was passed at the end of 2020 there have been huge scandals and stories of corruption, human trafficking, and a rise in crime. Concerns are that unless Cambodia tidies up its act it could see its new gambling industry shut down before it really takes off.
Te reports surrounding the casino industry have been hitting Cambodian news headlines over the last few years, and not in a good way.
In August last year, video footage showed dozens of Vietnamese nationals fleeing from a Kandal province casino called Rich World Casino where they had reportedly been held against their will and tortured. Tey tried to swim across the border via the Binh Di River back to Vietnam with one youngster drowning.
Ten a group of around 60 Vietnamese workers fled from a casino in Bavet City in the Svay Rieng
province just a month later and were caught heading to the Moc Bai border gate claiming casino owners had run off with their wages. Many were chased by security guards with video footage showing them being beaten when caught. Tese are just two horror stories linked to mainly Chinese-owned casinos in the country which are reportedly using forced labour with overwork and unpaid jobs issues.
Te US has added Cambodia to its people trafficking blacklist whilst Taiwanese authorities say they know of 5,000 citizens to date who have travelled to Cambodia and not returned.
Te Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vietnam has joined hands with the Cambodian authorities and the agency says more than 600 citizens duped by human traffickers to work in Cambodia had been repatriated by the summer of last year.
Meanwhile, crime has apparently spiked in
Cambodia’s coastal city of Sihanoukville after rapid investment into the casino sector has caused a multitude of issues.
Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a warning in September last year with a strict crackdown on all forms of illegal gambling with consequences for any officials who did not act on any illegal gambling and the closure of any business, such as cafes, which allowed gambling on their premises.
Since this announcement, the authorities have shut down 230 illegal gambling businesses and arrested more than 600 people.
CAMBODIA’S LEGACY
Cambodia has been ruled with an iron fist for the last 38 years by Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former military commander who is the longest serving head of government in Cambodia.
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P49
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