New Cambodian land casino operators eye online gambling opportunities

The Cambodian government has issued 10 new land casino licenses but says that the new operators are mainly interested in online opportunities that are possible through the licenses; in Cambodia, land licensees can add online gambling to their offering.

Ros Phearun, deputy director general of the financial industry department at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, told local media that most of the new casinos are located in the southwest province of Sihanoukville, where there is a very active online gambling population. And he revealed that most of the new operations are owned by Chinese nationals.

The new licenses bring the number of brick and mortar casinos in the Asian country to 75, although Cambodia allows only foreigners to gamble in these establishments.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance says that government collected tax revenue of more than US$25 million from the casino industry in 2014 and about US$22 million in the first half of 2015.

The National Bank of Cambodia said the brick and mortar casino industry generates approximately US$2 billion in revenue annually.