A new investigation by Amnesty International shows that a dozen casinos in Cambodia are directly linked to scamming compounds where torture, forced labour, child labour and human trafficking have taken place.
- Regulators rubber-stamped casinos this year despite evidence of slavery and torture
- Survivors describe being trafficked to casino complexes and forced to scam
- Casinos linked to scamming compounds owned by major Cambodian companies
Analysis of official licensing documents issued by Cambodia’s Commercial Gambling Management Commission (CGMC) shows that casino owners are in direct control of buildings and sites where human rights abuses have been documented in at least 12 separate locations. The findings corroborate testimony from compound survivors who described being on casino property while they were confined and abused.
The casinos’ plans were recognized 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 powerful companies in Cambodia.
“This research establishes a clear link between Cambodia’s licensed casinos and its scamming compounds. At a time when the government says it is dismantling the scamming industry, the evidence shows it is simultaneously recognizing the plans for casino properties where abusive scamming compounds are run,” Amnesty International’s Co-Regional Director Montse Ferrer said.
“At a time when the government says it is dismantling the scamming industry, the evidence shows it is simultaneously recognizing the plans for casino properties where abusive scamming compounds are run”
Amnesty International’s Co-Regional Director Montse Ferrer
“This contradiction raises urgent questions about whether Cambodian regulators are legitimizing companies linked 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 in which people on casino property are at risk of being enslaved.”
Casinos recognized by government despite scamming links
In December 2025 and January 2026, the CGMC reviewed and recognized plans submitted by companies operating casinos. These included Crown casinos in the cities of Poipet, Bavet and Chrey Thum, and the Majestic Two and Majestic Hotel & Casino in Sihanoukville, whose former owner 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, which show casino buildings, rental buildings, guest accommodation, hotels and general facilities.
By comparing the official CGMC maps with satellite imagery, analyzed alongside Amnesty International’s own visits to compounds and testimony from scores of survivors gathered for its June 2025 report on scamming compounds, Amnesty identified 11 instances where the compounds profiled in the 2025 report were within the casino complexes recognized by the CGMC.
Amnesty International was able to link an additional 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 subject to forced labour and deprived of their liberty at the casino complex, in one case until December 2025. The victims identified the buildings, including through photographs they had taken while confined, and the Crown logo. One of them identified building 15 in 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 were able to identify exact buildings within casino complexes where they were held.
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 that were likely used to launder money. The victims identified an image from Google Streetview which features a door and a sign for “Crown Casino”, saying they were taken through that door and forcibly confined inside.
One was in tears as she recounted: “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 he was trafficked into Cambodia, was deprived of his liberty in two separate casino complexes recently recognized by the CGMC. Sawat (not his real name) said he was confined in building 9, identified in the Crown Chrey Thom map plans as a “Hotel and office”, and was later taken 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 said he was 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, later losing consciousness before receiving medical assistance away from the compound.
Building E is identified 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 with links to China through one of its two directors; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound KA02;
- Marinan International, operated by Marinan International Co., Ltd., a Cambodian company with links to China through one of its two directors; the same location Amnesty International identified as scamming compound PO07 where evidence of human trafficking and forced labour 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 with links to China through one of its two directors; the same locations Amnesty International identified as scamming compounds SI15 and SI16, respectively, where evidence of human trafficking, forced labour, child labour and enslavement were documented;
- Long Feng Xuan Casino, operated by Long Feng Xuan Co., Ltd., a Cambodian company whose sole director is listed as being 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 labour and torture and other ill-treatment was documented.
In all cases Amnesty International has evidence that the human rights abuse documented took place within the buildings marked 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 makes 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.”
Montse Ferrer
“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 more than 50 scamming compounds across Cambodia were sites of widespread slavery, human trafficking, forced labour, 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 pointing towards state complicity or deliberate inaction that had 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 — bear a responsibility to respect human rights, which is independent of the state 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 where there is evidence that they knowingly assisted in the trafficking, enslavement or torture of persons.
Amnesty International wrote to 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.
Head to Amnesty Australia’s Instagram to learn more.
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