Has the booming casino business in Sihanoukville led to money laundering?
That’s the question being posed by international law enforcement officials, who are looking for signs of illegal transactions in the Cambodian coastal city.
According to a November 2018 report on ChannelNewsAsia.com, in the past two years a rush of Chinese investment has turned Sihanoukville into a mini-Las Vegas. The onetime idyllic natural area now has more than 30 casinos, with dozens more under construction; the resort in Preah Sihanouk Province has become a magnet for Chinese high-rollers, according to the Nikkei Asian Review, with narcotic investigators following close behind due to the booming methamphetamine market in Southeast Asia.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says the market for meth in the region could be valued at $ 61.4 billion annually, more than double the Cambodian economy of $24 billion.
“The casinos in Sihanoukville are now worth looking into, as you have currency exchanges in all of them, and there are currency wire services just next to the gambling tables,” an international investigator told the Nikkei. “All the punters are Chinese and they gamble with thick stacks of hundred-dollar bills.”
The Financial Action Task Force this year added Cambodia to its “gray list.” There are an estimated 150 casinos throughout the country, which is known for its lax regulations, porous borders and an economy that relies principally on the U.S. dollar over the Cambodian riel.
“Suitcases full of cash are brought across the Thai-Cambodian and Vietnam-Cambodian borders regularly, and exchanging them for dollars does not raise eyebrows,” a Western diplomatic source told Nikkei. “The unregulated casinos are ideal venues to launder this cash.”
The UNODC has called meth trafficking “the most lucrative business for transnational organized crime groups in the region. The illicit proceeds are laundered through various channels, in particular the growing network of casinos in the region.”
Investigators are focusing on the Golden Triangle, which also includes parts of eastern Myanmar, northern Thailand and western Laos. The massive Kings Romans Casino in Laos, close to the Thai border, has been flagged for engaging in drug trafficking and money laundering by the U.S. Treasury Department, but Zhao Wei, chairman of the Kings Romans Group says the allegations are “groundless.”
