Wave of Cambodian casinos suspended after Prince sanctions

More than a dozen casinos, including several suspected of involvement in Cambodia’s spiraling global scam operations, have had licenses suspended following international sanctions and mounting pressure.

Cambodia’s gambling regulator, the Commercial Gambling Management Commission, provided a list of the suspended licenses in the wake of U.S. and U.K. sanctions against conglomerate Prince Group and its affiliates last month. The U.S. froze $15 billion in cryptocurrency in the October action, putting a spotlight on the massive profits of an industry racked with reports of torture, kidnappings, forced labor and human trafficking.

Ros Phirun, the commission’s secretary-general, shared on Monday a list of 14 casinos whose licenses were suspended. The list includes several casinos in Sihanoukville branded “Jin Bei” and a casino complex in Kandal province’s Sampov Poun city also connected to the newly-sanctioned Prince Group. This follows reports of Sunday morning raids on four casino locations in Sihanoukville that are linked to the new list of sanctions.

He told Mekong Independent that the regulator had begun looking into operators as a result of the U.S. and U.K. sanctions. The 14 licenses were suspended because they were suspected of running online scams, they self-filed for suspension, or they showed “seriously non-compliant license criteria after warnings and penalties,” he said in a message.

“After the CGMC received the sanction announcement, with cooperation between the CGMC’s secretariat and the National Police Commissariat, we conducted the investigation. Since we found any suspicion, the CGMC issued a warning letter to [distribute] penalty and license suspension.”

Cambodian authorities have conducted periodic raids on scam compounds over the past several years even as the industry continued to thrive, prompting an observer to urge “commitment” toward enforcing the law against organized crime.

14 locations

A handful of the casinos on the list of 14 suspensions have links to the recently sanctioned entities. The U.S. sanctions list, published here, includes Cambodian Heng Xin Real Estate Investment Co. Ltd., and Jin Bei Group Co. Ltd. — both connected to different properties called “Jin Bei” in Sihanoukville’s Bei and Buon communes — and Golden Fortune Resorts World Co. Ltd. in Kandal province’s Sampov Poun city.

G.C. Media Co. Ltd., which is the parent company for G.C. Casino and Jin Bei 4, is chaired by Ing Dara, according to Commerce Ministry data. Dara is a Cambodian citizen who is also named on the U.S. sanctions list in connection to Prince Group.

It was not clear if the other suspended casinos were at all connected to what the U.S. termed the “Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization.”

Closed gates

Sihanoukville’s Buon commune police chief Sam Prak said the Jin Bei casinos, which he described as having multiple locations, had been closed. However he did not share any details about the action nor how many officials were involved in the closure.

“When it was closed, they asked [workers] to quit,” Prak said.

Photos from local news outlets show documents taped to several properties after they were reportedly ordered to close, stating that “in the case of having been found certainly committing crimes, the Secretariat of the Commission for Combating Cybercrime will remove the license” of the business.

The U.S. and U.K. governments on October 14 announced joint sanctions of companies and individuals connected to Prince Group for operating online scams and laundering money. The U.S. also put out an arrest warrant for Prince Group’s chairman Chen Zhi and froze $15 billion in cryptocurrency in wallets he allegedly owns.

Heng Bunly, chief of Buon village inside Buon commune, said that one of the Jin Bei properties in his jurisdiction — Jin Bei 4 — was raided yesterday, but he was not informed in advance by higher authorities.

Bunly said that the building had many workers inside, mostly foreign, including Chinese, Indonesians and Vietnamese, among others. He said developers had appeared to be expanding the property, but he didn’t know how many buildings were on the site.

“We do not know how many [workers] are in there because, frankly speaking, in my position I cannot go to their location,” he said. “We have no duty to go to their building because the buildings are very huge, and big [powerful] people can go inside.”

Two more sites

In addition to the announced actions against the 14 casinos, local news reports stated that two separate casinos had been recently raided — Casino Sunshine in Sihanoukville and Silver Star Casino in Bavet city.

Casino Sunshine, also known as Punleu Preashathith Casino, saw its license revoked in an earlier action dated October 17, but the press release was only published on October 30.

Authorities also raided Bavet’s Silver Star Casino on November 1, alongside the Commercial Gambling Management Commission and secretariat of the commission for combating cybercrime, a task force formed early this year.

According to government news outlet TVK, authorities arrested 23 suspects from 9 different countries. The report said that 20 suspects, from South Asia, Africa and the Philippines, were being prepared for deportation while three individuals from Taiwan and Malaysia were being investigated as “ringleaders.” The report also stated that the gambling regulator had revoked Silver Star Casino’s license. 

Photos from the raid depicted logos from the U.S.’s Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. flags on white screen backgrounds. One of the common tropes for online scammers is to impersonate law enforcement authorities in an attempt to coerce money from victims.

When asked about this case, Phirun said the CGMC was still looking into this case and in the process of filing the complaint, as the licensed Silver Star Casino appeared to move locations. “The former location that our people went to close [in the] last few days was running illegally,” Phirun said.

Bavet city governor Lim Sieng Heng said that the action was led by the gambling regulator and that local authorities were not involved.

“They are the experts. … In the past, when they went, they never asked us to cooperate because this is their authority.”

Ou Sokhoeun, director of the Svay Rieng provincial labor department, confirmed that labor inspectors had visited Silver Star to find out how many workers would be suspended as a result of the casino closure and how they will be paid. Sokhoeun said his inspectors were not done assessing the situation, so he did not know how many workers were inside Silver Star.

“We just want to know whether the staff who work in there … how long they will be suspended and how the company will pay their salary — we will follow up with this case.”

Ha Sara, Bavet commune police chief and Thong Vannak, Svay Rieng deputy provincial police in charge of immigration, both declined to give comment.

Pressure on Cambodia

Am Sam Ath, director at the human rights NGO Licadho, told Mekong Independent that these actions follow a high-profile meeting between Prime Minister Hun Manet and the U.S.’s FBI.

“The most important thing is related to this investigation, when they find that it is involved in crime, they must implement the law effectively.”

He noted that Cambodia is under increasing pressure to respond to online scams, noting the actions against Prince Group as well as the South Korea government urging action after a Korean university student was kidnapped and killed in an alleged scam center. South Korea has said that hundreds of its citizens have been kidnapped in Cambodia this year.

“Firstly it impacts on the international tourism sectors and investment and social security order … so Cambodia must have a high commitment to prevent and crack down on online scams.”