Cambodia Launches Broad Casino Review to Address Online Fraud Connections
Government teams carried out inspections across all 195 licensed casinos in Cambodia between June 2025 and June 2026 as part of an effort targeting operations tied to online scams, and the results showed 72 facilities connected to fraudulent activities. Authorities revoked 19 licenses outright, suspended another 30, and allowed 23 more to end when their permits expired without renewal. Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith submitted these findings in a report to the Cabinet meeting held on July 24, 2026, where Prime Minister Hun Manet noted the outcomes as progress in the ongoing campaign that also included raids on 737 scam centers and the deportation of over 21,100 individuals.
Inspection Process and Initial Discoveries
Inspectors visited every licensed casino site during the one-year period, examining operational records, ownership structures, and any signs of involvement with online fraud networks that often use casino premises for money laundering or coordination. The process revealed direct links in 72 cases, which represented a significant portion of the total, and officials moved quickly to enforce penalties based on the evidence collected. Those actions produced the 19 revocations and 30 suspensions, while the remaining 23 locations stopped functioning once their licenses reached expiration dates without extension requests approved.
Data from the review highlighted patterns where certain casinos served as hubs for scam operations that targeted victims across borders, and the findings aligned with broader enforcement steps taken throughout the same timeframe. Teams documented how some venues provided cover for digital fraud schemes that relied on physical locations for logistics and fund movement, which prompted the stricter regulatory responses.
Report Submission and Government Response
The one-year report into its online scam crackdown (submitted to 24 July Cabinet meeting) detailed every step of the inspection and the resulting license decisions, giving Cabinet members a clear picture of how the crackdown unfolded across multiple provinces. Prime Minister Hun Manet described the overall effort, including the casino reviews, as advancing the country's ability to disrupt organized fraud rings that had expanded in recent years. Additional operations ran parallel to the casino work, with security forces raiding 737 identified scam centers and carrying out more than 21,100 deportations of foreign nationals linked to those sites.
Officials coordinated the raids with the casino inspections to cut off support networks that fraud groups used for both digital and physical operations, and the combined actions produced measurable reductions in reported scam incidents by the end of the review period. The deportations targeted individuals who lacked proper documentation or faced charges tied to fraud coordination, which further isolated remaining illegal networks still attempting to operate within Cambodian borders.
Scale of Enforcement Actions
Numbers from the campaign show the wide reach of the measures, since inspectors covered every one of the 195 licensed venues and identified connections in nearly 37 percent of them. The license actions affected 72 sites in total, splitting into the categories of outright revocation, temporary suspension, and non-renewal at expiration, while the parallel raids and deportations addressed the human and operational elements of the scam ecosystem. Government reports indicated that many of the closed or suspended casinos had allowed unauthorized online activities to run from their premises, which violated the terms of their original operating agreements.
Enforcement teams worked through the full year without interruption, gathering documentation that supported each penalty decision and ensuring that affected operators received formal notices before any changes took effect. Those steps prevented several venues from continuing to function as fronts for larger fraud organizations that had previously used Cambodian territory as a base for international schemes.
Broader Context of the Crackdown
The casino inspections formed one part of a sustained push that began in June 2025 and continued through the following June, incorporating intelligence sharing with neighboring countries to track cross-border fraud activities. Raids on the 737 scam centers uncovered equipment and records that connected back to some of the same casino-linked networks, which strengthened the case for the license actions taken by regulators. Over 21,100 deportations removed key personnel from the operations and disrupted recruitment pipelines that fraud groups had established inside the country.
Prime Minister Hun Manet emphasized during the July 24 Cabinet session that these combined efforts marked a turning point in the fight against online scams, since the data showed clear reductions in the number of active centers and the flow of illicit funds through licensed gambling sites. The report submitted by Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith provided the factual foundation for those assessments and outlined next steps for maintaining pressure on any remaining illegal operations.
Conclusion
The nationwide inspection of Cambodia's 195 licensed casinos produced concrete results through the revocation of 19 licenses, suspension of 30 others, and the closure of 23 additional sites at expiration, all tied to evidence of involvement in online fraud. When paired with the 737 raids and more than 21,100 deportations carried out over the same period, the actions delivered a coordinated response that addressed both the physical venues and the personnel behind the scam networks. The report presented on July 24, 2026, captured these outcomes and gave government leaders a detailed record of progress achieved during the one-year crackdown.