Amnesty Links Cambodian Casinos to Trafficking and Abuse Networks
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodian casino operators are facing renewed scrutiny after an Amnesty International investigation linked licensed properties to trafficking, forced labour and torture.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:The findings raise pressure on regulators after casino plans were approved during a period when the government said it was cracking down on scam compounds.
Amnesty Says Casino Sites Overlap with Abuse Locations
Amnesty International said at least 12 casinos are directly linked to compounds where serious human rights abuses have taken place. According to the group, official licensing documents issued by Cambodia’s Commercial Gambling Management Commission, or CGMC, show that casino owners controlled buildings and sites where survivors later reported being confined, abused and forced to work in scam operations.
The approvals in question were issued in December 2025 and January 2026. Amnesty said that timing matters because it came during what Cambodian authorities described as a nationwide campaign against scam compounds, creating a clear contradiction between public enforcement claims and the official recognition of casino properties tied to abuse allegations.
The investigation names several operators and sites, including Crown casinos in Poipet, Bavet and Chrey Thum, along with the Majestic Hotel & Casino, Majestic Two and New Venetian Casino. Amnesty said its analysis compared official CGMC maps with satellite imagery, on-site visits and survivor testimony gathered over multiple years.
Survivors Described Abuse Inside Casino Complexes
Amnesty said survivors were able to identify specific buildings inside casino compounds where they were held. In one case, two people told investigators they were confined for months at the Crown Resorts complex in Poipet, threatened with electric shock batons and forced to open bank accounts that may have been used for money laundering.
Another survivor, who was a child when trafficked into Cambodia, said he was held inside Crown Chrey Thom before being transferred to the New Venetian site in Bavet. Amnesty said he later described being tortured in a dark room before escaping by jumping from a window.
Related: Cambodia to Tighten Casino Regulatory Oversight
More Regulation
The group also linked Crown Bavet Casino to more recent abuse claims. In January 2026, Amnesty interviewed two Kenyan nationals who said they had been subjected to forced labour and deprivation of liberty at the site, in one case until December 2025. That detail makes the issue harder for operators and regulators to dismiss as historical.
Why the Findings Matter for the Gambling Sector
The report carries weight beyond a single operator or property. Amnesty’s earlier research in June 2025 identified more than 50 scam compounds across Cambodia, with nearly half linked to casinos. That points to a wider pattern in which licensed gambling sites and adjacent properties may have been used as part of organized criminal activity rather than isolated failures of oversight.
That broader background makes this a regulatory story as much as a human rights one. The Amnesty investigation into Cambodia’s casino-linked scamming compounds argues that some licensed operators may face exposure not only under Cambodian law, but also under transnational or international legal standards if evidence shows they knowingly enabled trafficking, enslavement or torture.
Amnesty said it contacted the CGMC and the companies named in the investigation before publication, but none had responded by the time the report was released. The organization is calling for the immediate suspension of the gambling licences involved and for a full, independent investigation into the companies, owners, financiers and operators connected to the sites.
For Cambodia, the case lands at a sensitive moment. The government has tried to present itself as taking action against scam compounds, but the overlap between those enforcement claims and the approval of casino properties now risks deeper questions about whether regulators failed to act or allowed the system to keep running in plain sight.
RELATED TOPICS: Regulation
Review this New Post
Leave a Comment
User Comments
Comments for Amnesty Links Cambodian Casinos to Trafficking and Abuse Networks