Online gambling bust in Cambodia

The Cambodian police reported over the weekend that a police operation mounted Friday night has broken up an online sports betting ring in the capital Phnom Penh.

25 individuals, including both Chinese and Cambodian nationalities, were arrested and computer equipment was seized in the operation, police spokesmen told the Phnom Penh Post.

Major General Y Sok Khy, chief of the Ministry of Interior’s anti-terrorism police, told the Post that 19 Chinese nationals and seven Cambodian nationals were arrested when police teams raided the offices of a supposedly real estate company in the Tuol Kork district.

“This marks the third crackdown on Chinese [nationals] involved in online gambling in Phnom Penh this year,” the general said, noting that on September 2 this year, a group of 67 multi-national people were arrested in a coordinated bust across three locations in Phnom Penh.

Cambodia’s Law on the Suppression of Gambling, passed in 2006, makes unlicensed betting by land or online illegal.