Live dealer action in Cambodia

The Cambodian online gambling scene is building momentum with the availability in English, Mandarin and Thai language of live dealer action beamed from a land casino in Northern neighbour Laos, reports the The Cambodia Daily newspaper.

The publication claims that local and foreign croupiers run video streamed blackjack, baccarat or roulette games from the Savan Vegas casino in Laos, with online deposit facilities through internet e-cash processors like Neteller or Cambodian bank accounts.

Savan Vegas is not the first to offer live dealer; Laotian land casino Ha Tien Vegas operated a live dealer venue branded htv999.com, and when the casino closed it re-routed its online punters to the Savan Vegas site, accessible at Club Vegas 999.com and Savan Vegas 999.com.

Savan Vegas is operated by Macau-based Sanum Investments, but the company that offers the live dealer gaming experience is Creative Entertainment Ltd., which has an office in Phnom Penh and works on a Curacao online licence.

Cambodia does not have any specific laws on internet gambling, and government officials involved in land casino regulation told the newspaper that the sector was a grey legal area, although there have apparently been police actions that have shut down online gambling enterprises as recently as late last year, when online football betting rings were broken up.

Creative Entertainment was founded by two Americans named as Shawn Scott and John Baldwin, although the company says that they have since divested and moved on.

However, the duo have banking and financial interests in the region, and one of them – Saipan-based Bridge Capital – is reportedly listed as billing contact for the Club Vegas 999.com, Savan Vegas 999.com and htv999.com websites.

Pressed for comment by The Cambodia Daily, Ros Phearun, deputy director of the finance industry department inside the Cambodian Ministry of Economy and Finance, said the government was looking into the legality of Creative Entertainment’s online business….and he opined that online casino gambling was illegal in Cambodia.

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