Amnesty International’s investigation shows a stark mismatch between Cambodia’s public anti-fraud campaign and what licensed casinos actually look like on the ground: at least a dozen licensed casinos are located on properties documented as scamming compounds with forced labor, torture and trafficking. The government has revoked some licences and arrested suspects, but those actions have not yet severed the operational links Amnesty found between casinos and abuse.
What Amnesty documented on casino sites
Amnesty interviewed survivors who identified specific buildings inside licensed casino complexes — including three Crown casinos (Poipet, Bavet, Chrey Thum) and the Majestic Hotel & Casino in Sihanoukville — where they were confined and abused for weeks or months. Testimonies describe electric-shock torture, forced bank-account openings and other coercive practices consistent with trafficking and forced labour.
Commercial Gambling Management Commission (CGMC) records reviewed by Amnesty show the CGMC approved casino plans for properties where survivors reported abuse from 2022 through 2026, meaning licensing paperwork and documented human rights abuses overlap in time and place rather than being separated by years.
Enforcement actions taken — and the gaps they leave
Cambodian authorities have acted: in April 2026 the CGMC revoked Casino Licence No. 040 after detaining 107 foreign nationals at the Shang Hai Resort casino, and reports note the government also shut down 44 gaming halls allegedly involved in fraud. The arrest and deportation of Chen Zhi, a Chinese national linked to a global scamming network and Prince Group Holdings, has been highlighted as a major enforcement step.
| Regulatory action | Immediate effect | Residual risks Amnesty flagged |
|---|---|---|
| Licence revocation (e.g., Licence No. 040, April 2026) | Property shut down; detentions and prosecutions in some cases | Other licences remain on neighbouring or same-site properties; ownership webs can shift assets |
| Targeted arrests (Chen Zhi and associates) | Removes alleged leaders; signals cooperation with foreign partners | Corporate fronts (real estate, casinos) tied to suspects may persist without independent audits |
| Closure of gaming halls and tech crackdowns | Disrupts fraud systems temporarily | Survivor reports suggest operations can relocate inside licensed complexes or continue under new management |
In short: the state actions are real and measurable, but Amnesty’s evidence shows licences were approved on the same properties where abuse occurred, and that enforcement so far has not produced transparent, independent investigations into ownership or routine audits of casino operations.
How this changes what players, banks and investors should check
Verifying a licence alone is no longer sufficient. Due diligence should include who owns and controls the operator, whether the operator’s assets overlap with properties cited in human rights reports, and any recent regulatory filings or revocations — for example, whether a CGMC permit was approved between 2022–2026 for the site in question.
Operational red flags that can affect withdrawals, bonus terms and payment reliability include opaque ownership, frequent corporate name changes, and reports of detained staff or patrons. These are practical thresholds: if a casino’s ownership links to companies reported in human-rights investigations or to figures like Prince Group Holdings, pause onboarding or transactions until independent audits are available.
Short Q&A
Q: Should you avoid all Cambodian casinos? Not automatically — but avoid any operator whose ownership records intersect with properties named in Amnesty’s report or with entities tied to arrested suspects.
Q: How soon will regulators fix licensing rules? The next checkpoint is whether the CGMC and other bodies adopt transparent, independent investigations and stricter licensing criteria — a change Amnesty and outside observers are explicitly calling for; timing remains uncertain.
Q: What’s a stop signal for investors? Continued approvals of casino plans for sites where survivor testimony documents abuse, or a lack of independent audits after high-profile arrests, are practical stop signals.
Regulatory checkpoints that would materially reduce risk
To break the pattern Amnesty describes, regulators need three concrete changes: public disclosure of ownership and lease arrangements for licensed casinos; independent audits of on-site employment and payment practices; and licensing criteria that explicitly bar approval where credible evidence links a property to trafficking or forced labour. Each change imposes a clear threshold that can be measured in filings, audit reports or new regulation text.
If Cambodia’s regulators publish ownership registries and require third-party operational audits — steps Amnesty recommends — that would shift the situation from episodic enforcement (arrests and closures) to structural oversight. Until then, licence revocations and arrests should be treated as partial fixes rather than proof the problem is solved.
