Cambodia to ban online gambling, cites threat to social order

[geovalin]

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia said on Sunday it is banning online gambling, which helped propel a wave of Chinese investment in casinos in the country, saying that the industry had been used by foreign criminals to extort money.

 

The southern coastal city of Sihanoukville has emerged as a particular center for gambling and many of the dozens of Chinese-run casinos that have sprung up there have online gambling operations.

 

“The Royal Government of Cambodia will stop the issuance of online gambling policy and licenses, both within and outside of the Kingdom of Cambodia, from the date of signing this directive,” said a directive signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

 

 

“Some foreign criminals have taken refuge in the form of this gambling to cheat and extort money from victims, domestic and abroad, which affect the security, public order and social order,” the directive said.

 

China is Cambodia’s close ally, its biggest donor and investor . It has also been trying to crack down on cross-border gambling, criticizing operations in the Philippines that are similar to those in Cambodia.

 

(The story corrects to remove extraneous word in the 1st paragraph).

Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Richard Borsuk

 

REUTERS --

[phycokiller]

what a load of it. its not that online gambling extorts money, its that the government cant extort money from online gambling. thats too bad, you cant stop it, maybe you should have thought of that before bulldozing sihanoukville and turning it into a casino

Edited August 19, 2019 by phycokiller

[ThomasThBKK]

Daddy china doesn't want capital outflow of china into cambodia and other gambling destinations from the average people it seems 

[brucegoniners]

Gee, do you think the mafia who own the casinos had anything to do with that decision?

[wombat]

37 minutes ago, brucegoniners said:

Gee, do you think the mafia who own the casinos had anything to do with that decision?

nothing a good VPN wouldn't overcome surely ?

 

[Benmart]

The threat to social order seems to be the gang running the country.

[Krataiboy]

Hun Sen should be re-christened Helpyer Sen. He is to blame for turning the once-sleepy seaside town of Sihanoukville into a new Oriental Las Vegas - despite gambling being officially banned in Cambodia.

 

More than seventy Chinese owned casinos have sprung up catering mainly to Chinese package tour punters - which means, the millions of reil generated mostly goes back to feed the Communist giant's greedy economy.

 

 

Edited August 19, 2019 by Krataiboy

[Traubert]

19 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

Hun Sen should be re-christened Helpyer Sen. He is to blame for turning the once-sleepy seaside town of Sihanoukville into a new Oriental Las Vegas - despite gambling being officially banned in Cambodia.

 

More than seventy Chinese owned casinos have sprung up catering mainly to Chinese package tour punters - which means, the millions of reil generated mostly goes back to feed the Communist giant's greedy economy.

 

 

Nah, they sewed that one up back in early 2018. Hun Sen is not that daft. Quote:

 

Previously, Cambodia levied a 14 percent withholding tax on payments of dividends, interest, and royalties paid to Chinese residents. Under the signed DTT, these rates have been slashed to 10 percent.

Only, the interest payments made by a Cambodian company to a Chinese financial institution that has the government of China as the majority shareholding partner enjoy full exemption from withholding tax.  This provision allows Cambodian companies, involved in large-scale infrastructure projects in the country, to benefit tremendously from tax-free interest payments on loans granted by Chinese state banks.

 

You scratch my back, I'll allow your casinos.

 

Quote from ASEAN Briefing by the way.

[phycokiller]

9 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Daddy china doesn't want capital outflow of china into cambodia and other gambling destinations from the average people it seems 

not sure exactly how they expect all those casinos to survive without Chinese tourists spending Chinese money in them, and what a surprise that they built them in one of the few countries in the world that uses US$

[Krataiboy]

58 minutes ago, Traubert said:

Nah, they sewed that one up back in early 2018. Hun Sen is not that daft. Quote:

 

Previously, Cambodia levied a 14 percent withholding tax on payments of dividends, interest, and royalties paid to Chinese residents. Under the signed DTT, these rates have been slashed to 10 percent.

Only, the interest payments made by a Cambodian company to a Chinese financial institution that has the government of China as the majority shareholding partner enjoy full exemption from withholding tax.  This provision allows Cambodian companies, involved in large-scale infrastructure projects in the country, to benefit tremendously from tax-free interest payments on loans granted by Chinese state banks.

 

You scratch my back, I'll allow your casinos.

 

Quote from ASEAN Briefing by the way.

He always was a crafty old beggar.

 

Good to know it's not all one-way traffic, economically speaking. However, I gather locals are less than enthusiastic about the impact of Chinese immigrants (not least their mafia) who now comprise 20 percent of Sihanoukville's population.

 

Thanks, by the way, for the ASEAN Briefing tip. Sounds worth a look.

[phycokiller]

1 hour ago, Krataiboy said:

Hun Sen should be re-christened Helpyer Sen. He is to blame for turning the once-sleepy seaside town of Sihanoukville into a new Oriental Las Vegas - despite gambling being officially banned in Cambodia.

 

More than seventy Chinese owned casinos have sprung up catering mainly to Chinese package tour punters - which means, the millions of reil generated mostly goes back to feed the Communist giant's greedy economy.

 

 

I dont think riel comes into. the chinese bring in yuan which the casinos return to them in US$ which I presume goes to off shore bank accounts. the yuan then goes back to china to pay off cambodias loans and pay for weapons to suppress the protests that are going to happen when the EU closes the clothing factories

Edited August 19, 2019 by phycokiller

[Redline]

Because there will be up to 350 casinos in the next few years.  I think there are 88 now?

[fullcave]

Those poor Cambodian casino cartels must be loosing a ton of market share. It's just not fair. ????