Cambodia Links All 18 Revoked Casino Licences to Prince Group Network

The revocations are not new: Cambodia named the same 18 casinos in September. What changed on 6 November is the attribution, delivered to 46 diplomats a day after Washington's third round of Prince Group sanctions.

• Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith told a diplomatic briefing in Phnom Penh on 6 November that 18 casino licences revoked over the past year were linked to the Prince Group network under Chen Zhi and Li Kuong, and that 10 more were suspended
• The same 18 casinos were named by Cambodia's anti-scam commission in September, when reports of the list did not mention Prince Group and nine licences were under suspension
• The briefing came a day after the US Treasury sanctioned four individuals and 41 entities it says support the Prince Group network, its third round since October 2025
• Two of the revoked licensees, Jin Bei Group and Golden Fortune Resorts World, were named by the UK when it sanctioned Prince Group in October 2025
• Cambodia's own counts do not reconcile: in August it reported 20 revocations and 29 suspensions, and it has published no register of licence actions

Cambodia Puts a Name to a List It Had Already Published

Chhay Sinarith, Senior Minister in Charge of Special Missions and Standing Vice-Chairman of the Commission for Combating Online Scams (CCOS), presented the figures at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation on 6 November, according to the state news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP). AKP said 46 members of the diplomatic corps and international organisations attended.

"Over the past year, authorities revoked 18 casino licences linked to the Prince Group network under Chen Zhi and Li Kuong, and suspended another 10 licences," AKP reported. The agency did not name the casinos or date the individual revocations. Cambodianess, reporting the CCOS press release, described Li Kuong as the owner of an online-fraud compound in Sihanoukville.

The casinos are not new to the record. On 9 September the CCOS secretariat released the names of 18 casinos whose licences had been annulled under Royal Government Order No. 01 BB of 14 July 2025, with nine more suspended pending inquiries, The Phnom Penh Post reported. The list included Jin Bei Group, Jin Bei 4 Casino, G.C. Casino and Golden Fortune Resorts World Casino. Neither that report nor Cambodianess's account of the list mentions Prince Group. Those four had been revoked in February, when a regulatory advisor linked them to Chen Zhi's business alliance.

Sanctions Context and the Wider Crackdown

Cambodia "acknowledged information concerning U.S. sanctions against individuals and entities associated with the Prince Group network", AKP said, and is working with the FBI and INTERPOL. On 5 November the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four individuals and 41 entities it says support the business network of the Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization, its third round after October 2025 and June 2026.

Those actions rest on allegations. On 14 October 2025 the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging Chen Zhi with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, alleging he directed forced-labour scam compounds, and filed a civil forfeiture complaint against about 127,271 Bitcoin, then worth about $15 billion. The UK sanctioned Prince Group the same day, alleging that Chen and the group "constructed casinos and compounds used as scam centres". Prince Group said on 11 November 2025 that it "categorically rejects" any suggestion of unlawful activity, AFP reported. Cambodia arrested Chen Zhi on 6 January and sent him to China at Beijing's request, the Interior Ministry said.

Across the campaign from 1 July 2025 to 31 October 2026, the CCOS reported action at 972 locations, 568 court case files, 5,032 suspects indicted and 23,760 foreign nationals repatriated. More than $300 million in bank accounts is frozen, AKP said, though it did not attribute that sum to Prince Group.

The Attribution Is Aimed at Washington, Not at Casinos

Nothing in the 6 November briefing points to a new revocation. Cambodia reframed completed enforcement as action against a network the US, UK and China are all pursuing, before diplomats, a day after new US designations. That matters because the State Department's report in October said Cambodia licensed casinos with a documented history of hosting scam centres in January. Attaching every revocation to Prince Group answers that charge with the most recognisable name available.

London Named Two of These Casinos a Year Ago

The UK's October 2025 designation named Jin Bei Group's Sihanoukville hotel and casino and Golden Fortune Resorts World, which it called the company behind a large scam compound outside Phnom Penh. Cambodia revoked both in February, four months later and a month after Chen's arrest. For operators and suppliers screening counterparties, foreign sanctions remain the earlier signal.

The Numbers Still Do Not Add Up

August brought 20 revocations and 29 suspensions, September 18 and nine, and November 18 and 10. Without a published register, nobody outside government can say which casinos lost licences, or on what evidence. The IMF has already said Cambodia's vetting of casino owners is deficient ahead of the 2027 renewals.

Cambodia has given its casino enforcement a name the world recognises. A public list of who lost which licence, and why, would do more to answer its critics.