After a visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Cambodia has agreed to work with the superpower to fight illegal online gaming and cybercrime.
Li was in Cambodia for the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit. During the trip, he met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who vowed to take up the fight against illegal gaming following reports of human trafficking and money laundering associated with the operations.
In a joint statement, the leaders stated, “Law enforcement cooperation is to be furthered with highlights on combating human trafficking, online gambling, telecom fraud and related heinous crimes, facilitated by closer cooperation in capacity building and information exchanges.”
The announcement followed another recent partnership between China and Vietnam, who agreed this month to work together to combat cross-border gambling. According to GGRAsia, industry analysts say Vietnam hopes the partnership will help to boost Chinese tourism when Beijing eases pandemic restrictions on foreign travel.
A report by Agence France Presse described the kind of horrors visited on people trafficked into the illegal iGaming industry in Asia. Jeremy Douglas, of the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, told AFP that “criminal groups moved casino businesses online, and some then did a pivot and added online and phone scams.”
Douglas said “thousands, and some have estimated possibly tens of thousands” of people were recruited to serve online industries, then were forced to work 12- and 14-hour shifts for little pay, could not leave at will, were physically abused and in some cases, were even sold to other operators.
In one high-profile case in August, dozens of online workers escaped a casino in Kandal Province in Cambodia and swam across a river to freedom in Vietnam. Law enforcement then embarked on a series of raids, and police freed more than 1,000 foreign workers from operations in Sihanoukville.
Cambodia has a robust legal casino industry. As of October 10, Ros Phirun, secretary general of the country’s Commercial Gambling Management Commission, confirmed that 87 of 171 gaming license applications had been renewed.
