Cambodian Casino Sweep Exposes Fraud Ties in 72 of 195 Licensed Venues

Cambodian authorities completed a full review of the country's 195 licensed casinos and determined that 72 of them had connections to online fraud schemes as part of a coordinated one-year effort running from June 2025 through June 2026, and the findings reached the Cabinet in late July 2026. The review formed one piece of a larger operation that targeted scam centers across multiple provinces while inspectors checked thousands of additional sites for signs of illegal activity.

Scale of the Nationwide Review

Teams moved through 737 suspected centers and examined 28,500 separate locations during the campaign, which allowed officials to map out networks that blended casino operations with digital fraud platforms, and the data collected produced a detailed picture of how some licensed venues supported cross-border schemes. Dozens of casino licenses faced revocation or suspension once evidence of involvement surfaced, while hundreds of court cases moved forward to address the criminal elements uncovered during the inspections.

Foreign nationals linked to the operations numbered more than 21,100 individuals who were deported over the twelve-month period, and the removals formed a central part of efforts to disrupt the staffing of scam centers that had operated under the cover of legitimate gambling businesses. The volume of cases and deportations reflected the breadth of the networks that investigators encountered as they worked through urban and rural areas alike.

Official Presentation of Findings

Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith delivered the compiled report to Prime Minister Hun Manet, who presented the document at the 24 July 2026 Cabinet meeting and characterized the results as a significant advance toward improving the country's standing with international observers. The report outlined both the number of affected casinos and the enforcement steps already taken, which included license actions and ongoing prosecutions.

Those who examined the statistics noted that the 72 casinos represented more than one-third of the total licensed sector, a proportion that prompted immediate follow-up inspections at remaining venues to ensure compliance with updated regulations. The crackdown timeline shows steady progress from initial raids in mid-2025 through final license decisions in mid-2026, with each phase building on evidence gathered earlier.

Enforcement Outcomes and Court Proceedings

Hundreds of court cases emerged from the inspections, covering charges that ranged from facilitating online scams to operating unlicensed digital platforms within casino premises, and prosecutors continue to process these matters as additional evidence comes forward from seized records. License revocations and suspensions took effect at dozens of sites, which reduced the operational footprint of venues previously tied to fraudulent activity.

Data collected during the review also guided targeted raids that closed or restricted access to centers operating without proper authorization, and the combined actions produced measurable reductions in reported scam incidents tied to Cambodian addresses by the end of the one-year period. Observers tracking the results have pointed to the deportation figures as evidence of the operation's reach into the foreign workforce that supported many of these schemes.

Restoring Regulatory Standing

The report submitted by Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith emphasized measurable steps taken to separate legitimate casino operations from criminal networks, and Prime Minister Hun Manet highlighted these measures during the Cabinet discussion as progress toward meeting international expectations for financial oversight. Authorities have continued spot checks at the remaining licensed venues to verify that corrective actions remain in place.

Figures from the campaign show that inspections extended beyond casinos into related businesses, which helped identify hidden connections between physical locations and online fraud platforms that had previously operated with limited interference. The coordinated approach across multiple agencies produced the detailed dataset that informed both immediate enforcement and longer-term policy adjustments.

Conclusion

The one-year crackdown reached its formal close with the July 2026 Cabinet presentation, yet follow-up monitoring continues at sites where licenses were adjusted or revoked, and the data gathered during the review now informs ongoing regulatory reforms aimed at preventing similar patterns from reemerging. The documented actions, from the initial sweep of 195 casinos through the deportation of more than 21,100 foreign nationals, illustrate the scale of resources deployed to address the issue across the full reporting period.