Cambodian Authorities Close Polluting Chinese Casino

[geovalin]

Authorities in southwestern Cambodia’s Sihanoukville province have shut down a Chinese-owned casino accused of polluting an adjacent beach following the casino’s defiance of orders to cease operations, sources said on Friday.

 

The Jin Ding Hotel and Casino located on Koh Rong Samloem Island, a popular tourist destination, was ordered to close in March because it was operating without a license and releasing untreated sewage water directly into the sea.

That order and a follow-up notice to Jin Ding’s owner to shut the casino down had been ignored,  sources said.

 

Speaking to RFA’s Khmer Service on May 24, Sihanoukville province spokesperson Kheng Phyrum said that police and court officials have now closed Jin Ding, with its owner forced by a court official accompanying police to sign an agreement to close it down.

 

“If the owner doesn’t comply with this agreement, the case will automatically be sent to the court, and the owner will face prosecution,” Kheng Phyrum said.

 

Also speaking to RFA, Cambodian environmental activist Thun Ratha welcomed Friday’s move by the authorities, saying it had come a little late and voicing hope that the casino will now be closed for good.

 

“We don’t believe that it will be permanently closed,” Thun Ratha said, adding, “We are afraid that today’s action is just intended to calm people down, and that the casino will be opened again within a few months.

 

Multiple violations

In a letter seen in March by RFA’s Khmer Service, provincial authorities ordered Jin Ding closed, citing multiple violations by the casino of the law, the playing of loud music on the beach, and the promotion of illegal online betting games.

 

On one occasion, the casino’s security chief had also fired gunshots into the air, the letter ordering the casino’s closing said.

Chinese investment has flowed into Sihanoukville in recent years, but Cambodians regularly chafe at what they call unscrupulous business practices and unbecoming behavior by Chinese businessmen and residents.

 

A report by the AFP news agency in January on how Sihanoukville had become a “sizeable gambling playground” for Chinese tourists said there were at least 50 Chinese owned casinos in the province.

 

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Richard Finney.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/casino-05242019150217.html

Copyright © 1998-2016, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

[Emdog]

A decade or so ago I was considering moving to Sihanoukville: inexpensive, nice beaches, etc etc

Glad I didn't. Dodged that bullet.

[Johnnyngai]

Why do mainland Chinese like to gamble ?  

China vs Cambodia,  which place has more law and order ? 

I need to know for my next sexcation.  

 

[bronzedude]

In 2006 I spent a couple of weeks in Sihanoukville. I'd heard it was like Pattaya 20 years hence and wanted to see. There were no 4 or 5 star hotels and what was billed as a 3 star hotel was no better than a  guesthouse. Good eateries were hard to find and sex tourism was being taken to a dingy type of motel court with average girls sitting by the doors. Cows grazed on the grass adjacent to the beach and there were more flies than an Aussie December. The only place that was decent was being in the water. Now that the Chinese are there and sending their sewage forth, well, that's no longer an option. I think that progress has been no friend to Sihanoukville. I feel for the gentle Kamai people who live there now. They probably wish it was like it was before; simple, crude, special for being nothing special.   

[Burma Bill]

Quote:-

"Why do mainland Chinese like to gamble ? 

Because in Chinese culture they all pray/wish for good luck and fortune - then go gambling which is illegal on mainland China and in Hong Kong but legal in Macao and in some surrounding nations such as Cambodia, Laos and Burma. If you visit Northern Thailand and cross from Mae Sai in Thailand to Tachilek in Burma, you will see many Chinese and others gambling at the casinos there. Even more popular is not far away near Chiang Saen where the Chinese and others cross the Mekong from a huge reception complex to gamble at the new "mini Las Vegas" in Laos. Interestingly, this complex has an array of communication dishes and aerials and if you look at your mobile phone (whilst in Thailand) it will display "China Telecom" rather than AIS, TRUE, DTAC etc. so to make a local call you have to dial internationally via China!