Hun Manet Calls 100 Casinos Too Many and Orders a Licence Review to Cut Them

Cambodia's prime minister says some licensed casinos "operate from a single shophouse" and contribute little to the economy. The order lands as the regulator drafts renewal criteria and a month before the October deadline to close the online loopholes it found in 195 inspections, 72 of which ended in closure.

• Prime Minister Hun Manet said on 16 September that Cambodia's more than 100 licensed casinos are excessive, that some were licensed as very small operations, and that the industry makes a limited contribution to the economy, according to the Cambodia-China Times as reported by Asia Gaming Brief
• He ordered officials to reassess the standards for issuing and renewing casino licences as the government moves to reduce the number of properties gradually
• The Commercial Gambling Management Commission of Cambodia began drafting a "casino integrity and quality evaluation framework for license renewals" at a 4 September meeting; no criteria or timetable have been published
• Authorities investigated 195 licensed casinos over the past year and at least 72 ceased operating after revocation or failed renewal, the same report says
• Hun Manet reaffirmed the October deadline to close online-gambling loopholes, said casinos involved in online betting will not be renewed, and repeated that no casino will be permitted in Siem Reap

A Prime Minister Puts a Number on the Problem

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet has ordered officials to reassess the standards for issuing and renewing casino licences as the government moves to reduce the number of casinos operating nationwide, Asia Gaming Brief reported on Thursday, citing the Chinese-language Cambodia-China Times. Speaking on 16 September, Hun Manet described the current count of more than 100 licensed casinos as excessive, said some had been licensed in the past as extremely small operations, some running from a single shophouse, and said the industry makes only a limited contribution to the economy and represents a small part of the country's tourism and services sectors.

The remarks give policy direction to work already under way at the regulator. The General Secretariat of the Commercial Gambling Management Commission of Cambodia (CGMC) reviewed a proposed "casino integrity and quality evaluation framework for license renewals" at a 4 September meeting chaired by secretary-general Yeth Vinel, AGB reported earlier this month. The framework is intended to set minimum suitability conditions for casinos seeking to keep their licences; the CGMC has not disclosed the criteria or an implementation date. Hun Manet's comments indicate that tighter approval and renewal standards will be the mechanism for reducing the number of properties.

The context is the country's campaign against online scam operations, which has drawn in the casino sector. Authorities investigated 195 licensed casinos over the past year, and at least 72 subsequently ceased operating because their licences were revoked or they did not meet renewal requirements, the Cambodia-China Times reported. Cambodia stopped issuing online gambling licences in 2019 and no longer permits online gambling, but the authorities found that some casinos continued to exploit legal and regulatory loopholes to run online betting. Hun Manet has ordered agencies to inspect casinos and close those loopholes before October, and said casinos involved in online gambling or other violations will not have their licences renewed under the proposed framework.

He also reaffirmed that the government will not permit casinos in Siem Reap, the World Heritage destination where investors have repeatedly sought to build.

What Is Not Yet Known

Neither the prime minister's remarks nor the CGMC's September meeting has produced a published set of renewal criteria, a target number of casinos, or a timetable beyond the October deadline for the online-gambling inspections. AGB's report does not say how many of the more than 100 licences fall due for renewal in the coming year, nor whether the framework will apply to the large integrated resorts, NagaWorld in Phnom Penh among them, as well as to the border-town and shophouse operations the prime minister described.

"Limited Contribution" Is the Sentence That Matters

A head of government saying the casino industry contributes little to the economy is not an observation, it is a licence policy. Cambodia's casino count grew through the 2010s on the assumption that each licence was a source of fees and foreign investment; the scam-compound scandal has inverted that, and the prime minister is now describing the sector as a small part of tourism and services with a large regulatory cost. Once the political value of a casino licence is reframed as a liability, a renewal framework with undisclosed criteria becomes a tool for closing whichever properties the government chooses. The 72 closures in a year happened before any new framework existed. The framework is what will make the next tranche orderly.

October Is a Compliance Deadline and a Political One

The instruction to close online loopholes before October gives every licensed casino a few weeks to demonstrate it has no online operation, and the statement that violators will not be renewed makes the inspection outcome the renewal outcome. That is a sensible way to run an enforcement sweep, and it also means the regulator does not have to publish criteria to start reducing the count: the online inspections will do the first cut, and the "integrity and quality" framework will do the second. Operators that have relied on ambiguity between land-based licences and online activity, which the September order already targeted, now have the prime minister on the record as wanting fewer of them.

The Scam Economy Made This Inevitable, and the Anti-Scam Alliance Made It Urgent

Cambodia joined a 46-country anti-scam alliance this month, and the country's licensed casinos have been repeatedly named in the scam-compound reporting that prompted it. A government seeking to be seen as a partner rather than a host cannot simultaneously defend a hundred shophouse licences. The reduction Hun Manet has ordered is the price of that seat, and the properties that survive will be the ones large enough to be inspected and taxed in ways that a shophouse never was. That points towards consolidation around a small number of resort-scale operators, which is where the sector's foreign investors would rather be anyway.

Cambodia has decided it has too many casinos and has told its regulator to write the rule that removes them. The rule is not published yet. The removals have already begun.