{"id":777010648,"date":"2023-10-27T06:49:19","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T09:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777010648"},"modified":"2026-04-22T16:45:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:45:46","slug":"61-vietnamese-citizens-rescued-from-myanmar-casinos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/61-vietnamese-citizens-rescued-from-myanmar-casinos","title":{"rendered":"61 Vietnamese citizens rescued from Myanmar casinos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Vietnamese embassy says they were being held at illegal casinos in northern border areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Vietnam.- The Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar has announced that 61 Vietnamese citizens have been rescued from illegal casinos in the country.\u00a0Pham Thu Hang, the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed the operation during a regular press conference in Hanoi on October 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ministry&#8217;s Consular Department had received reports from Myanmar authorities of the rescue of nearly 200 foreign nationals, including Vietnamese citizens, from illegal casinos in northern border regions of Myanmar. It directed the embassy to work with local authorities to identify the Vietnamese citizens and facilitate the necessary consular procedures.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gambling is illegal in Myanmar, but there are a number of casinos in the country, mostly in border areas. They are often run by Chinese or Thai investors with collaboration from the Border Guard Force, an armed group associated with the region\u2019s Karen ethnic minority. The casinos have faced accusations of involvement in human trafficking, drug trafficking and internet scams.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In August, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and China agreed to&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/__trashed-7\" target=\"_blank\">cooperate against gambling fraud<\/a>&nbsp;and related crimes, including human trafficking, kidnapping and unlawful detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>See also:&nbsp;<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/china-and-myanmar-arrest-269-cyber-scam-suspects\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">China and Myanmar arrest 269 cyber scam suspects<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Vietnamese embassy says they were being held at illegal casinos in northern border areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777007112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar successfully repatriated 61 citizens from illicit gambling establishments in Myanmar's northern border regions. These unregulated operations, frequently linked to Chinese and Thai capital and local armed groups, are implicated in human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, and sophisticated internet scams, underscoring severe governance and compliance failures in the region.","focusai_entities":"Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar, Pham Thu Hang, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Vietnam), Myanmar authorities, Border Guard Force, Chinese investors, Thai investors","focusai_location":"Myanmar, Vietnam, Hanoi, Thailand, Laos, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.8), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.7), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Cross-border Enforcement Efficacy?","query":"What specific governance frameworks and international cooperation mechanisms are being proposed or strengthened to effectively combat illegal gambling operations and associated human trafficking in the Mekong region?"},{"label":"Impact on Regulated Markets?","query":"How do these high-profile incidents of illicit gambling and criminal activity in unregulated border areas influence the regulatory scrutiny and licensing conditions for legitimate iGaming operators seeking market entry in Southeast Asia?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[23911],"class_list":["post-777010648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777010648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777010648"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777010648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777041070,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777010648\/revisions\/777041070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777007112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777010648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777010648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777010648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}