Cambodia Confirms 24 Casinos Halted Online Gambling
Twenty-four casinos across three Cambodian provinces have ceased online gambling operations after a government-imposed deadline expired on September 30, according to the secretariat of the Commission for Combating Technology-enabled Scams (CCTC), known locally as the Ad Hoc Commission for Combating Online Scams (CCOS).
The commission said it would pursue legal action against any operator found to still be running online betting after the cut-off, with "no exception or leniency."
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Enforcement Spans Three Provinces
Of the 24 casinos, 12 are located in Preah Sihanouk province, seven in Banteay Meanchey and five in Svay Rieng, the secretariat said.
Inspection teams working with the Commercial Gambling Management Commission of Cambodia and provincial unified command committees, with procedural coordination from provincial courts, confirmed that all 24 sites had ended their online gambling and betting activity and removed the equipment used to run it, according to The Phnom Penh Post.
The activities that were ordered to stop included livestreamed gaming, football betting, online lotteries and so-called "sporting bird" competitions, the secretariat said, according to Cambodia's state news agency AKP.
The commission did not disclose how many of the country's roughly 200 licensed casinos had been offering online betting services before the deadline, nor did it reference the kingdom's earlier 2019 ban on online gambling directly, though the new crackdown builds on that prohibition.
Part Of A Wider Anti-Scam Campaign
The enforcement drive sits inside a much larger government campaign against technology-enabled scam operations, many of which have been linked to compound-style call-centre fraud across the country.
As of September, the secretariat reported that the licences of 18 casinos had been revoked outright, while a further nine had been suspended pending investigation. Officials said they would keep closely monitoring the inspected casinos, as well as other sites nationwide, to ensure continued compliance.
The CCTC said its work on casinos is coordinated with the broader scam-compound crackdown, under which it has helped clear more than 600 locations linked to technology-based fraud across the kingdom, though it stressed there was no allegation that the 24 casinos targeted in this round were themselves involved in scam operations.
Khmer Times reported that the government reiterated its blanket ban covers all forms of online gambling and betting, whether conducted inside or outside casino premises.
Online Gambling Has Long Been Restricted
Cambodia has barred its own citizens from gambling in online casinos and land-based venues alike since well before the current crackdown, with legal casino gambling reserved for foreign tourists under the 2020 Law on the Management of Casino Commercial Gambling.
The latest action targets the harder-to-police online and livestreamed segment specifically, an area regulators in several Southeast Asian markets have struggled to bring under the same licensing controls as physical casino floors.
For now, authorities say enforcement will continue province by province, with further inspections expected as the wider scam-compound clearance campaign continues.
