On Monday, March 30, the Cambodian government ordered that all casinos in the country close to help stop the spread of the Covid-19 contagion.
According to Reuters, as of that date, 107 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus, including a 30-year old man who had worked in a casino and karaoke club in the northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey, near the border with Thailand.
Just before the closure on April 1, Hun Sen urged gamblers to make their last bets. “If you want to gamble, do it tonight. There is still tonight and tomorrow night,” he said.
Cambodia had more than 125 casinos operating as of December 2019, many of them clustered in the once-tranquil seacoast town of Sihanoukville, and many of them Chinese-run.
Hun Sen warned that casinos that failed to comply would be forcibly closed. The industry took a hit late last year when Hun Sen banned online gambling, resulting in thousands of layoffs and dozens of casinos closing.
The Cambodian Health Ministry will waive monthly tax obligations for the duration of the closures, the largest being NagaWorld in the capital city of Phnom Penh.
The Prime Minister explained the reason for delaying closure until late Wednesday was to provide time for the government to discuss details with casino owners.
“It is because casino employers need to solve the issues with their employees,” he said. “If we close the casinos right away, then casino employers will flee.”
Yin Hongsi, who hires workers for a Cambodian casino, told the Japan Times when the health scare has passed, Chinese gamblers will make their way back to Sihanoukville. “China is huge, there will always be people interested in Sihanoukville,” he said. “You don’t need to worry if the Chinese will come back.”
“It seems like other countries are not interested in Cambodia, like America and Europe,” he added. “China is interested.”
Hun Sen said the casino shutdown could cost about 20,000 Cambodian workers their jobs.
Ros Phearun, deputy director-general of the ministry’s financial industry department, said the government’s priority “is to care about people’s lives, not businesses. “I cannot predict when those casinos can resume their operation as normal, because we don’t know when the situation will improve.”
Ou Tepphallin, president of the Cambodia Food and Service Worker Federation, has asked the government to help workers in the sector.
“We appeal to the government and private sector to pay high attention to the workers who lose their job, how can they pay for rent, food and support their families,” she said. “The government should consider using some government budget to handle urgent issues.”
