A recent warning could spell a major blow for the Cambodian economy, which has become heavily dependent on Chinese money. Looking at the recent vicious crime cases involving Chinese citizens in Cambodia, many of those were led by gambling causes.
The law enforcement units of China and Cambodia are jointly enhancing efforts to combat every online gambling and telecom fraud activity involving Chinese citizens in Cambodia.
The embassy stated that mainland Chinese passport holders should not take part in gambling in the Southeast Asian nation and warned against online gambling companies trying to lure people to work in Cambodia.
Much of the gambling is centered around the southern port city of Sihanoukville, which has been transformed into a Chinese enclave over recent years amid massive investment and attempts to transform what was once a quiet provincial town into a major metropolis.
However, those plans have fallen flat. In mid-2019, Cambodia stopped issuing new permits for online gambling services, which are being phased out.
The Covid-19 pandemic has also taken a toll, ending international tourism and halting the planned migration of millions of Chinese. By 2019, according to the government's own statistics, Chinese nationals living in Cambodia had more than doubled from a year earlier to 210,000.
Back then Chinese tourist arrivals had risen more than 70% year on year and were expected to reach 2.5 million annually by 2020 — in a country of just 15 million people.
China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has also said it would add more overseas destinations to a blacklist of cross-border gambling. READ HERE: OVERSEAS GAMBLING A TARGET FOR CHINA
The Chinese government has told its citizens not to gamble in Cambodia after multiple cases of violence were reported, with some resulting in death.
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