Sihanoukville to refuse local players

The government asked Cambodia’s province to strengthen the controls in the area.

Cambodia.- Yun Min, Sihanouk’s Governor, asked local casinos to enforce the laws that ban Cambodian players from gambling in their facilities. Authorities believe that the number of citizens that ignore the banning has increased significantly.

“There are some casinos that do not comply with the government’s strict instructions and have allowed Cambodian clients to gamble, resulting in impacts on public order and social security,”said a report released by the Governor in mid-January. Contrary to what Min asked, Y Sokleng, Sihanoukville City Governor, said that they didn’t have to comply with Min’s petition. “It is not related to city administration. And secondly, regarding Cambodians gambling, in the past, the city had invited casinos and instructed them not to allow Cambodian people to play,” according to the report.

Last week, Ros Phirun, deputy director-general of the Finance Ministry of Cambodia, said that Vietnam’s ruling to allow locals to gamble would not have a significant impact in his country’s gaming industry. Even though they don’t expect an overall influence, they do believe that Cambodia’s border casinos could be affected. “Of course, we will definitely get some effect by the new move from the Vietnamese government. But, it doesn’t mean that it severely affects the whole industry here because they will only let local people gamble at two selected casinos which are really far from us,” he said.