Military police on Friday arrested 689 individuals during a raid on an online gambling business in the Thai-Myanmar border town of Tachileik.

Myanmar police handed over six alleged key figures in a cyber scam fraud group and four other major crime suspects to Chinese public security authorities, as part of efforts to crack down on cross-border long-distance scams targeting Chinese nationals.

Myanmar presents an interesting quagmire of crises versus opportunity, notes expert Ben Lee. Smaller-scale operators focusing on the Chinese and Thai markets stand to make good margins, but ongoing conflict has scaled back visitation, and the threat of Thailand legalizing gaming could disrupt the status quo.

In this week’s Under the Scope, IGamiX’s Managing Partner Ben Lee looks at the scale of gaming in Myanmar and what operators can expect, or not expect, especially if Thailand legalizes gaming.

Chinese play has always been the lifeblood of Asian gaming, but a recent report by the Asian Racing Federation has highlighted exactly how extensive the tentacles reach. Throughout Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos have leveraged nearly half of worldwide illegal betting turnover, despite authorities' attempts.

More than 200 suspects involved in Myanmar-based cyber scams have been detained by police in one of the largest joint crackdowns between Beijing and the Southeast Asian country, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced on Tuesday.

China and Myanmar's top officials have once again held high-level meetings in response to cross-border telecom fraud and gambling crimes.

Myanmar’s government has decided to extend the state of emergency put in place in 2021 when the military seized power. The move forces a further delay in elections but has not caused the nation’s casinos to shutter, despite the ongoing turmoil.

China is aiming to ‘severely crack down’ on telecom fraud conducted abroad ‘and impose severe penalties on co-perpetrators operator at home soil’, according to state media. The move comes in response to various telecom, online gambling and crypto scam hubs popping up throughout Southeast Asia, oftentimes linked to Chinese operators.

Myanmar’s military junta has reportedly proposed a draft cybersecurity law that criminalizes the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) as well as online gambling