With the government’s crackdown, is illegal gambling leaving Cambodia?

(AsiaGameHub) –   Growing concerns are escalating across Southeast Asia that illegal gambling rings are shifting their operations away from Cambodia amid the government’s crackdown on scam hubs.

Thai media outlet The Nation reported that 106 Thai citizens were arrested in Laos on suspicion of involvement in call-centre scams and online gambling operations based in the country’s Bolikhamxay region.

Earlier this month, authorities in Sri Lanka also announced that they arrested over 1,000 foreign nationals for cybercrime in 2026, marking a sharp increase compared to previous years.

Sri Lankan officials shared that most of the arrested foreign nationals were from China, Vietnam and India, and attribute the rise in arrests to crackdowns on this activity in hotspots Cambodia and Myanmar, which pushed criminals to seek out new locations to base their operations.

Cambodia has long faced repeated criticism for failing to act against scam centres tied to the country’s casinos, which are reported to have defrauded victims out of billions of dollars total.

In response to mounting pressure, the Cambodian government passed its first dedicated cybercrime law aimed specifically at targeting those behind online scams.

People convicted of participating in the targeted criminal operations will face between two and five years of prison time and fines of up to $125,000. For scams run by organized gangs or targeting multiple victims, maximum sentences can stretch up to 10 years.

Per the Cambodian China Times, Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sar Sokha told Swiss Ambassador to Cambodia Pedro Zwhalen that the country’s crackdown has resulted in the arrest, deportation, or voluntary departure of over 300,000 foreign nationals linked to online fraud.

91 casinos were also shut down last month by the country’s gaming regulator after being accused of backing online fraud networks.

The shutdown came days after China’s Foreign Minister, Wang YI, demanded stricter action on cross-border gambling, calling the issue a critical matter of public safety.

While Cambodia’s crackdown actions have been widely welcomed, concerns will grow again if the illegal activity has simply shifted locations instead of being stamped out entirely.

Laos authorities stated they launched their raid after receiving intelligence that criminal groups had brought equipment into the country to run call centres and online gambling websites.

The Thai nationals have been repatriated to their home country, and officials note they will be screened to confirm whether they were victims of human trafficking, a defining feature of scam centres across the region.