Sihanoukville, Cambodian magnet for Chinese casinos, loses its pull, leaving thousands owed money and unable to move on
- Thousands of Chinese construction workers left unpaid and stranded as work on half-built Chinese casinos comes to a halt following August ban on online gambling
- A federation of Chinese businesses has been created to help those affected by the fallout, but there is only so much it can do
After passing through loose security at the entrance of WM Casino, in neon-flashing downtown Sihanoukville, the floor opens onto a dozen or so smiling women in tight black dresses, at Vegas-style, green-felt gaming tables. They deal cards in view of webcams, while on a nearby monitor, online avatars of remote gamblers appear to be placing bets.
Towards the back of the casino, a floor manager overseeing the operations from a glass-walled room emerges and quickly denies they are providing online gambling for players outside the casino.
“We absolutely don’t do any online gambling,” he insists, saying the system on view is a closed circuit, meant to serve players at other locations in the casino.
Why any gambler in the vicinity wouldn’t play at the table is unclear. Further inquiry only leads the man, smiling politely, to say: “We don’t have to explain things to you. If you stay longer, I’ll call the police.”
That may be his right, but if his “closed circuit” story is as disingenuous as it sounds, and what looks like remote online gambling is, in fact, remote online gambling, the manager would have other legal worries.