More than 7,000 Cambodians have been left unemployed and a number of casinos around Cambodia have closed doors as a result from a recently enforced ban on online gambling.
More layoffs and closures are expected to occur as the government begins today to carry out inspections in order to discover whether locally licensed casino operators comply with the new rule.
Over the past several years, Cambodia has attracted a wave of Chinese investors who have built casino resorts around the country in a bid to also obtain licenses to conduct online gambling activities. Those Chinese operators have used their licenses to provide online gaming and betting services mostly to Mainland China where these practices are actually banned.
In August 2019, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a directive to ban online gambling. The ban was enforced late last year. Cambodia’s top official said that he did not want his country and its economy to be heavily reliant on online gambling money and that “some foreign criminals have taken refuge in the form of [online] gambling to cheat and extort money from victims, domestic and abroad.”
Cambodian officials began today to inspect the nation’s brick-and-mortar casinos to make sure that they have shut down their online gambling operations.
Government Revenue to Take a Hit due to Online Gambling Ban
Ros Phearun, Deputy Director-General of the Finance Ministry’s financial industry department, told media on Tuesday that tax revenue from gambling would be hit very hard due to the recently implemented online gambling ban.
According to government estimates, online gaming and betting services account for around a quarter of the $80 million per year that casinos contribute in tax revenues.
Since Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the online gambling ban this past August, a number of casinos around the country have ceased operations. Cambodia currently has 136 operational casinos, according to Ros Phearun. That number is expected to go down to 94 facilities by the end of January and during the first wave of government inspections.
According to media reports from the past several weeks and months, a number of Chinese nationals working in Cambodia’s online gambling industry have fled the country. There has also been a withdrawal of Chinese gamblers from the nation.
The southern coastal city of Sihanoukville has in recent years become a hub for casino gambling, hosting a number of Chinese-operated casinos. The number of gambling venues in the city has been slashed by half since the announcement of the iGaming ban from more than 70 prior August to 36 remaining.
Yov Khemara, Director of the city’s labor department, said on Tuesday that over 7,700 locals have lost their jobs after the ban. The official noted that they had previously worked at local factories “and when there was better salary in casinos, they came to work in casinos.” Many of those workers are now expected to go back to the factories.
Source: Thousands lose jobs, casinos shut as Cambodia bans online gambling, Reuters
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