A new report from an agency of the United Nations (U.N.) expresses concerns about special economic zones (SEZs) in Southeast Asia’s Mekong region, and the “proliferation of casinos in those zones.” The agency fears they may help organized crime groups “traffic various illicit goods and launder money.”
New casinos being developed in SEZs are “of significant concern,” stated the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Countries in the Mekong region include China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Per the UNODC, collectively they “have a long and well-documented history of organized crime and illicit economic activity, in part due to broader geopolitical circumstances, but also as a result of the social and political environment within the region.”
The agency also reiterated concerns about crimes such as human trafficking which have been repeatedly linked to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).
GGRAsia cited the policy report, entitled “Casinos, Cyber-Fraud and Trafficking in Persons for Forced Criminality in Southeast Asia.” In a statement to the media, UNDOC representative Jeremy Douglas said, “Organized crime groups are converging in the region where they see vulnerabilities. “Operations against syndicates in some countries like the Philippines have caused a partial displacement, and we have seen criminals moving infrastructure into places where they see opportunity— basically where they expect they will be able to take advantage and not be held to account, to remote and border areas of the Mekong.”
The report coincided with an announcement that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has joined with China to combat criminal activity associated with gambling. That report, called the “Regional Cooperation Roadmap to Address Transnational Organized Crime and Trafficking in Persons Associated with Casinos and Scam Operations in Southeast Asia,” is supported by the UNODC.
The UNODC report estimated that more than 340 licensed and non-licensed casinos were operating in Southeast Asia in 2021, particularly in the Mekong region. Since then, online casinos have spiked in the region, in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The latest rankings by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a Paris-based global watchdog, pointed to Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam as markets where “the regulatory and enforcement mechanisms” for casinos and SEZs “are not robust enough to address the heightened risks associated with money laundering in the casino industry.”
It added that a number of casinos, “particularly in the Myawaddy area of Myanmar, close to the border with Thailand,” may not have licenses to operate,” and are being run by “non-state armed groups that control important border areas.”
