Cambodia’s commercial gambling regulator has stripped a casino located in the prominent border city of Bavet of its official operating license after state investigators linked the property to suspected online fraud and cybercrime networks.
The immediate administrative shutdown adds another venue to a growing list of brick-and-mortar gaming complexes closed down under the state’s ongoing anti-scam enforcement push.
The regulatory action targets the Roxy Hotel & Casino, which is owned and operated by Radiant Pearl Investment Ltd. The emergency closure was triggered by a comprehensive, multi-agency field inspection executed on May 21 by regional police forces working in unison with Cambodia’s specialized Commission for Combating Online Scams.
The joint raid resulted in the immediate detention of 25 Chinese nationals on the premises. Furthermore, field investigators confiscated mobile smartphones, computer towers, transport vehicles, and sophisticated surveillance related hardware from the property.
Financial Intelligence Unit Audits Connected Bank Accounts
Sovereign authorities conducted detailed digital forensic reviews of the seized electronic hardware, concluding that the venue’s managers had been actively using the casino infrastructure to shield online fraud operations. The findings prompted Cambodia’s Commercial Gambling Management Commission to issue an order revoking the property’s casino license this week.
The case has transitioned from administrative closure to formal criminal prosecution. The gambling management commission has transmitted an official request to Cambodia’s Financial Intelligence Unit, demanding a complete audit of all commercial bank accounts linked to the company’s corporate owners and individuals previously registered as license holders. The financial tracking data is scheduled to be forwarded to state prosecutors at the Svay Rieng Provincial Court as judicial departments evaluate subsequent criminal indictments.
The license revocation forms part of a massive national campaign targeting authorized businesses suspected of facilitating cybercrime syndicates, a problem that has drawn sustained international attention to Cambodia’s casino sector. Regulators have spent months auditing regional gaming properties suspected of harboring human trafficking rings and telecom fraud hubs.
Data publicized by Chinese state news agency Xinhua illustrates the immense scale of the enforcement campaign, revealing that more than 250 suspected scam centers have been raided across Cambodia during the past nine months, while 91 casinos were shut down over alleged links to illicit activities.
The enforcement push arrives as international human rights organizations escalate their scrutiny regarding the relationship between licensed casino developments and criminal scam compounds operating in Southeast Asia. An April report published by Amnesty International alleged that several casino linked complexes had direct connections to geographic locations where human trafficking, forced labor, and other serious human rights abuses had taken place.
Cambodian authorities have pushed back against claims labeling the country as the central command hub for these syndicates. Officials overseeing anti-scam units argue that the underlying technology infrastructure, management networks, and cross-border financial systems powering many online scam rings are largely controlled from outside Cambodian jurisdiction.
Nonetheless, the closure of the Bavet venue signals that state regulators are maintaining pressure on licensed operators using properties as cover for fraud.
