07 April 2026 , 21:51
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A new investigation by Amnesty International reveals that a dozen casinos in Cambodia are directly connected to scamming compounds where incidents of torture, forced labor, child labor, and human trafficking have occurred.
Analysis of official licensing documents issued by Cambodia’s Commercial Gambling Management Commission (CGMC) indicates that casino owners have direct control over buildings and sites where human rights abuses have been recorded in at least 12 different locations. The findings support testimonies from compound survivors who reported being held and abused on casino properties.
The plans for the casinos were acknowledged by the CGMC in December and January—during the country’s supposed nationwide crackdown on scamming compounds. The approved businesses include three Crown casinos owned by Anco Brothers Co. Ltd., one of the most influential companies in Cambodia.
“This research establishes a clear link between Cambodia’s licensed casinos and its scamming compounds. At a time when the government claims it is dismantling the scamming industry, the evidence shows it is simultaneously recognizing the plans for casino properties where abusive scamming compounds operate,” said Montse Ferrer, Amnesty International’s Co-Regional Director.
“This contradiction raises urgent questions about whether Cambodian regulators are legitimizing companies tied to grave abuses. The authorities must explain why casinos with documented links to trafficking and torture continue to receive official approval. Every day that these casinos remain licensed is another day when people on casino property are at risk of human rights abuse.”
Casinos recognized by government despite scamming links
In December 2025 and January 2026, the CGMC reviewed and acknowledged plans submitted by companies operating casinos. These included Crown casinos in the cities of Poipet, Bavet, and Chrey Thum, as well as the Majestic Two and Majestic Hotel & Casino in Sihanoukville, whose former chairman was charged in January 2026 with illegal recruitment for exploitation, aggravated fraud, organized crime, and money laundering.
The CGMC published detailed maps of the casino complexes, showing casino buildings, rental buildings, guest accommodations, hotels, and general facilities.
By comparing the official CGMC maps with satellite imagery and testimony from scores of survivors gathered for its June 2025 report on scamming compounds, Amnesty identified 11 instances where the profiled compounds were within the casino complexes recognized by the CGMC.
In all cases, the same companies have been operating the casinos since at least 2022. All of the testimony obtained by Amnesty International—in which survivors reported being confined, tortured, and/or enslaved in scamming compounds—occurred from 2022 onwards.
Amnesty International was able to link another complex not featured in its June 2025 report, the Crown Bavet Casino, to very recent evidence of human rights abuse. In January 2026, Amnesty interviewed two individuals from Kenya who had been subjected to forced labor and deprived of their liberty at the casino complex, in one case until December 2025. The victims identified the buildings through photographs they had taken while confined and the Crown logo. One of them identified building 15 on the CGMC map as the location where she was confined. The map marks this building as “residential and office building.”
“The children in the room were crying”
Between 2024 and 2026, Amnesty International interviewed survivors who could identify exact buildings within casino complexes where they were confined.
Two survivors told Amnesty International they were at the Crown Resorts complex in Poipet where they were confined for months, threatened with electric shock batons, and forced to open bank accounts likely used to launder money. The victims identified an image from Google Streetview featuring a door and a sign for “Crown Casino,” stating they were taken through that door and forcibly confined inside.
One survivor recounted through tears: “The guards would enter the room and trigger the shock batons … it made a terrible sound. The children in the room were crying.” The building where she was tortured is marked in the Crown Resorts map in Poipet as “Restaurant and Office Buildings.”
Another victim, who was a child when trafficked into Cambodia, was deprived of his liberty in two separate casino complexes recently recognized by the CGMC. Sawat (not his real name) mentioned being confined in building 9, identified in the Crown Chrey Thom map plans as a “Hotel and office,” and was later moved to a location now confirmed as the New Venetian Casino in Bavet, operated by the New Venetian Resort Co., Ltd.
At The New Venetian site, Sawat described being tortured in a dark room on the eighth floor of “building E” before being told to eat his “last meal” in 2024. He jumped out of a window to escape, losing consciousness later before receiving medical assistance away from the compound.
Building E is marked as a “Hotel” in the CGMC approved map of the casino complex. During a site visit, Amnesty International observed a marker on the gate to Buildings C, D, and E reading “The New Venetian Casino and Resort” with the corresponding logo.
A systemic pattern that demands accountability
In addition to the Crown casinos and The New Venetian casino, Amnesty International also confirmed the following CGMC-recognized casino buildings located within the same complex as scamming compounds documented in its June 2025 report. Deprivation of liberty was documented in all locations, among other abuses:
- Casino Kyom (My casino), operated by Zhou Cheng K.P. Hotel Co. Ltd., a Cambodian company linked to China through one of its directors; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound KA02;
- Marinan International, operated by Marinan International Co., Ltd., a Cambodian company linked to China through one of its directors; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound PO07 where evidence of human trafficking and forced labor was documented;
- Peak Casino, operated by Conglomerate Development Group Co., Ltd., a Cambodian company; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound SI12;
- Majestic Hotel & Casino and Majestic Two, both operated by Big House Commercial Corporation, a Cambodian company linked to China through one of its directors; the same locations Amnesty International identified as scamming compounds SI15 and SI16, respectively, where evidence of human trafficking, forced labor, child labor, and enslavement were documented;
- Long Feng Xuan Casino, operated by Long Feng Xuan Co., Ltd., a Cambodian company with a director based in China; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound SI20;
- Huang (or Wang) Chao International, operated by Bao Shi International Entertainment Co., Ltd., a Cambodian company; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound SI32;
- Golden Sea Casino; operated by King Golden Sea Corp Ltd., a Cambodian company; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound SI50 where evidence of human trafficking, forced labor, torture, and other ill-treatment was documented.
In all cases, Amnesty International has evidence that the human rights abuses documented took place within the buildings designated as part of the casino complexes recognized by the CGMC. Amnesty has also verified further accounts of human rights abuse connected to at least three of these casino complexes since the publication of its June 2025 report.
“The scale and industrialized nature of abuse documented in these Cambodian casinos make it clear that this is a high-risk sector that demands investigation and accountability at every level of the corporate chain,” Montse Ferrer said.
“The Cambodian government must immediately suspend the gambling licenses of these casinos and conduct a full, independent, and transparent investigation into the violations documented at these sites. It should also investigate all those suspected of individual responsibility for crimes under international law or other gross human rights violations, including the owners, financiers, and operators of these casinos.”
Background
In June 2025, an Amnesty International report found that over 50 scamming compounds across Cambodia were sites of widespread slavery, human trafficking, forced labor, torture, and other human rights abuses, operating as prison-like facilities controlled by organized criminal groups. The report concluded that Cambodian authorities had failed to prevent or address these violations, with evidence suggesting state complicity or deliberate inaction that allowed the industry to flourish. Nearly half of the 53 scamming compounds Amnesty International identified in June 2025 were linked to a casino.
In July 2025, the Cambodian government announced a nationwide crackdown on scamming compounds in the country. The CGMC has taken some enforcement actions since the start of this crackdown, such as the suspension and sealing of four casinos in Preah Sihanouk province in November 2025.
As reflected in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, all businesses—including casino operators—have a responsibility to respect human rights, independent of the state’s duty to protect against human rights abuses by private actors. Where casino premises are used to facilitate the detention, coercion, and exploitation of trafficked workers, casino operators and property owners may face exposure under Cambodian, transnational, and international criminal law if evidence shows they knowingly assisted in the trafficking, enslavement, or torture of persons.
Amnesty International contacted the CGMC and all the companies named above to give them an opportunity to respond to the allegations raised. At the time of publication, none have responded.
Editor-in-Chief