Cambodia announced a ban on online gambling in August of last year, saying that no new licenses would be issued and called for all online gambling centers to shut down by 31st December 2019.
The ban seems to have been implemented successfully as after the deadline given by the authorities, the government issued an inspection of gambling facilities in order to check if any casinos was still offering online gambling and found that a number of operators had abandoned their gambling centers.
The anti-commercial gambling department of the ministry conducted a three-day inspection drive to close and identify operators still offering online gambling at their centers and it has reported that there are no online gambling centers operating illegally in Cambodia as of now.
Lieutenant General Sien Sen, the Director of the Department, has revealed that casinos and gambling facilities are complying with the ban. He added that they started their inspection campaign, and so far, have not yet found any illegal online gambling operations.
The Lieutenant General also said that some of those casinos ceased their online gambling operations while others are still being inspected. He added that they require three days to inspect each casino in the country and that they are only cracking down on online and arcade gambling operations which are illegal.
Cambodia’s ban on online gambling has been associated with more harm than good by lawmakers and the closure has triggered an exodus of Chinese nationals who dominated the country’s online gambling market. The ban has also resulted in several thousand being left without a job.