Cambodia Gives Green Light to Reopening Casinos

[geovalin]

Shuttered since April 1, casinos in Cambodia are finally returning said the country’s prime minister Hun Sen through a spokesperson on Friday.

Casinos in Cambodia Return after a Three-Month Hiatus

Cambodia casinos will restart operations, the country’s Prime Minister, Hun Sen, confirmed on Friday. With operators now having an official green light by the government, estimated 200 casinos are expected to restart. The approval comes after the Ministry of Health has worked out the necessary safety measures to defer the spread of COVID-19 on the premises of the casinos.

 

Casinos had to shut down on April 1 with the novel coronavirus’ cases increasing rapidly. Yet, the peak is now deemed to have passed, giving the government and health officials some leeway in restarting operations. According to health authorities, the incidence of COVID-19 infections in Southeast Asia has stabilized. Before they can launch, all operators planning to do so would have to make a petition to the Ministry of Health and familiarize themselves with the set of prevention measures that need to be observe before they can reopen.

 

read more https://www.gamblingnews.com/news/cambodia-gives-green-light-to-reopening-casinos/

[steven100]

Someone needs to put the shades down on their casino window.

It's so bright I can't see anything.....

[Geoffggi]

Oh dear that means Cambodia will get the first of the Chinese visitors, watch for the increase in CV-19 cases..!!

[Burma Bill]

3 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

Oh dear that means Cambodia will get the first of the Chinese visitors, watch for the increase in CV-19 cases..!!

Not at the moment - tourist visas still not being issued. Possibly open for resident Chinese (of which there are many) and other foreigners (South Koreans, Japanese, Taiwanese, UK USA Australian ex-pats etc.) who like to gamble. Khmers not allowed to gamble within Cambodia.

[hotchilli]

23 hours ago, geovalin said:

Cambodia casinos will restart operations, the country’s Prime Minister, Hun Sen, confirmed on Friday. With operators now having an official green light by the government, estimated 200 casinos are expected to restart.

Chinese must miss their leisure activities and money laundering operations !

[yuyiinthesky]

The ten thousands of Chinese visitors couldn’t bring yet a Virus to Cambodia dangerous enough to kill a Cambodian, or an expat living in Cambodian. Therefore I think it won’t be a problem for Cambodia.

[Sheryl]

7 hours ago, yuyiinthesky said:

The ten thousands of Chinese visitors couldn’t bring yet a Virus to Cambodia dangerous enough to kill a Cambodian, or an expat living in Cambodian. Therefore I think it won’t be a problem for Cambodia.

There have been deaths in both Cambodians and expats.

 

Not many, but there have been some, and then the overall number of cases seems to have been low. Emphasis on past tense, this could change, hence the quarantine requirement on arrivals from abroad.

 

 

 

 

[Traubert]

On 7/6/2020 at 5:06 PM, Geoffggi said:

Oh dear that means Cambodia will get the first of the Chinese visitors, watch for the increase in CV-19 cases..!!

Childish.

[mjtusa]

A friend of mine for over 40 years lives in Cambodia. He keeps me updated on current events. Most recently he has been following the new procedures related to testing and the $3K deposit. Yesterday he sent me a message that includes the text from a forum he follows written by an American who apparently arrived in Cambodia last month under this new plan.  Since the American's post was in a public forum I see no reason why it cannot be posted here. It addresses a variety of issues. I did no editing. 

 

"Hey everyone! Thought I would share my experience of getting back to Cambodia as well. Sorry it's a little long. I am trying to answer as many questions as I can in this one post. I flew in on the 19th of last month, and was just able to collect my deposit the other day. 

 

Overall, the process of traveling back was a lot easier than I was expecting. I had my insurance, $3,000 deposit and I got my Covid test done the day before flying out. I decided to be safe and get it as close as possible to my leaving date, as there was some confusion about it being done 3 days before departing or arriving. I was in the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas area in the USA and had my test done at an urgent care clinic for kids in Ft. Worth. Unfortunately, there was no test that was done that would have my results within 24 hours which is what I was wanting to do. But thankfully the area I was in got new testing that supposedly takes 15 minutes for results. Or so I was told. In all I was at the clinic for about 3 hours before leaving with the medical documents. I got a Rapid Antigen Covid test, and made sure that the documents had the clinic letterhead, NEGATIVE lab results, and the doctor's name and signature. No stamp was available. And when I asked about it the nurse said "The USA hasn't used stamps for medical stuff since the 1970's!" So if you are American, don't worry too much about the stamp. The clinic letterhead will provide the necessary info they need.

 

I flew out the next morning, and everything went well. Despite a scare on my first American Airlines flight out of DFW. They almost didn't let me board because they thought I had the wrong visa. Luckily they figured it out. My other flights went well. I went with Asiana Air and they were great. They looked over my documents before fling to Korea, and didn't question anything or give me any problems. I highly recommend flying with Asiana if you can, as they seem to be pretty relaxed about things and not as strict as other airlines like Korean. 

 

When I landed in Phnom Penh, things were a little chaotic, which was to be expected. But overall, I thought they had things laid out pretty well. They moved us around by stations, starting with getting our covid tests looked at, then onto paying the $3,000 deposit, then through immigration, baggage check, another Covid test, then onto our busses to our hotel. It took a while to get through the process, but it went smoothly. I really recommend bringing the $3,000 in cash, not your credit card. I watched quite a few people get their cards declined for different reasons, then were forced to take cash out of the ATMs. Which weren't working, of course. A lot of people were upset and on the phones with their banks trying to get things sorted. It was a mess. So bring cash if you can! 

 

The hotel I was at was not bad at all and the food was pretty good. Typical Khmer food. I ended up staying there two nights, as I didn't hear anything about our covid tests results the day after landing. On the second morning I just asked the front desk and they said we were cleared to leave. So expect that you may have to ask as well. 

 

On the 13th day after I arrived, I went to the Russian hospital to get my final Covid test. I didn't realize that they could only take 80 people a day, and that they only had two times available: 8:00 am and 2:00 pm. I went in the morning, but had to come back at 2. I really recommend getting there 15-30 minutes early so that you can get in line. There were a ton of Chinese people trying to get their tests done as well. One other foreign guy came a little after 2, but by that time all of the spots had already been reserved. I waited in a long outside for around an hour as they had all of us go through and got our information. You need to bring your passport, have a local address (even if it's a hotel), and have a phone number to give in order to go through and get the test. These things weren't clear in the info that they gave us when we left the airport. I had to run home and get my passport. The entire process took about 3 hours and again, was a bit chaotic. Mostly because so many of the Chinese nationals didn't speak English or Khmer so it took quite a while for them to get understand the directions. As someone else mentioned, this covid test was definitely the most painful. They stick the swab really far up your nasal cavity, more than the other tests I got. So get ready for that. I got my test done on a Thursday and was told to come back on Monday at 10:00 am to pick up the results, which I did. Afterward I was able to go to Cambodia Asia Bank and pick up the remaining deposit, which was $2,775 after they took out the expenses. 

 

All in all, the process was not too difficult, like I said. Just  took time, energy and cash haha. I am grateful it all worked out. Please let me know if you have any questions about things. I'll be happy to help out."

[Burma Bill]

2 hours ago, Sheryl said:

There have been deaths in both Cambodians and expats.

 

With due respect, there have been no reported deaths from coronavirus in Cambodia. The latest published figures (wikipedia):-

 

Cambodia

Confirmed    141 +0

Recovered     131

Deaths 0

[Burma Bill]

2 hours ago, Sheryl said:

There have been deaths in both Cambodians and expats.

 

With due respect, there have been no reported deaths from coronavirus in Cambodia. The latest published figures (wikipedia):-

 

Cambodia

Confirmed    141 +0

Recovered     131

Deaths 0

[Geoffggi]

3 hours ago, Traubert said:

Childish.

If you don't have anything sensible to say please keep quiet