Cambodia will conduct joint inspections of casinos nationwide starting this month to enforce its ban on online gambling within casino premises, according to state news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP).
Yeth Vinel, secretary-general of the Commercial Gambling Management Commission of Cambodia (CGMC), said the inspections would check whether land-based casinos were operating within their license conditions. If unauthorized online gambling was found, the regulator would impose administrative sanctions and cooperate with law enforcement to pursue criminal charges.
The arrangements were discussed at an October 5th afternoon meeting between the CGMC and the Secretariat of the Commission for Combating Online Scams (CCOS), involving representatives from 16 capital and provincial jurisdictions with casino operations.
The meeting brought together labor officials, national police, immigration authorities, provincial administrations and prosecutors to coordinate the inspections.
Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, standing vice chairman of the CCOS and head of its secretariat, said authorities would “continue to take tough measures against all locations linked to online scams,” AKP reported.
The inspections follow Prime Minister Hun Manet’s decision to suspend casino-based online betting from October. Interior Minister Sar Sokha disclosed the measure in September, saying gambling broadcast live from casinos complicated efforts to monitor financial flows of unclear origin.
Authorities had set September 30th as the deadline for ending such operations. In an earlier enforcement update, they said 24 casinos across Preah Sihanouk, Banteay Meanchey and Svay Rieng provinces had stopped online gambling and removed related equipment.
Those operations included gambling livestreams, online soccer betting and online lotteries.
