Cambodia's Anti-Tech-Fraud Law Enters Force as 91 Casino Licenses Revoked, but Operator Accountability Question Remains Open.

Amnesty International's April 2026 report on the enforcement campaign articulated the criticism most often raised by independent observers and the trade press: arrests are concentrated at compound-worker level, but operators, license-holders, and the political networks behind those operations have not faced criminal action. The U.S. Treasury's October 2024 OFAC designation of Senator Kok An and 28 linked entities froze roughly US$700 million in cryptocurrency tied to the Chen Zhi network, but no domestic prosecutions of the Cambodian-side principals have followed. The pattern is consistent with the earlier Sihanoukville crackdown of 2019–2020, when license revocations were not accompanied by senior-level accountability.

For surveillance and compliance professionals tracking correspondent banking and KYC exposure, the operational read is that the licensed Cambodian casino segment is effectively unbankable through most U.S. and EU correspondent institutions. Even properties with no scam-compound association face enhanced due diligence. Cross-border KYC sharing arrangements with China, Vietnam and Thailand are now operational.

NagaCorp's FY2025 results, filed via the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in March, anchor what little public visibility exists into the Cambodian licensed casino market. Group revenue reached US$709.7 million (+26.2% YoY), with NagaWorld GGR up 27.4% to US$691.6 million and net profit at US$309.9 million versus US$109.6 million a year earlier. EBITDA margin expanded to 57.0%, net margin to 43.7%. NagaWorld's compliance posture — entirely separate from any of the revoked properties — is what allows the company to maintain HKEX-tier audit standards and correspondent banking relationships.

A second-order effect of Cambodia's crackdown is capital flow into Vietnam's expanding domestic-entry pilot. Vietnamese citizens meeting eligibility criteria have been permitted to enter the Phu Quoc and Ho Tram casino complexes since 26 November 2025, with the Grand Ho Tram property formally admitting locals from 5 January 2026 under the 2017 pilot framework. The Ministry of Finance is drafting an expansion to three additional venues for cabinet review in Q3 2026. Corona Resort & Casino Phu Quoc remains loss-making (accumulated losses exceed VND 5.8 trillion, or roughly US$220 million), but the structural shift — domestic players accounted for 88% of total casino revenue in the 2019–2024 window despite making up only 52% of visitors — gives the pilot durable demand. Sun Group, Vingroup and several foreign operators are circling joint-venture structures.