Government looks at measures to control online gambling

Wednesday 7th of December 2016

The Cambodian government has been working on measures to control and manage online gambling, an official at the Ministry of Economy and Finance told Khmer Times.

Ros Phearun, a deputy director-general of the Finance Ministry’s financial industry department said while the gaming law is in progress and is expected to be approved sometime next year, the ministry’s technical teams have begun learning how to manage and control online gaming.
“We have been observing the current rise of online gaming. We found that they operate in different ways by selling a code or scratch code by using smartphones. We don’t allow such betting because it is hard to manage and it is not in the system,” he said.

“By law, we don’t allow online gaming besides licensed casinos and we also don’t allow local people to gamble,” he added.

“Right now, we are learning about online gaming from other countries so we can set up a server to manage it. Once we have it, all transactions will come through the system. Even gamblers use wire banking.”

According to Khmer Times, the government ordered the shutdown of Cambodia’s sole licensed bookmaker in 2009, after finding out most of its gamblers were locals.

Earlier this year, the ministries of finance and interior issued a joint-statement hoping to crack down on all forms of online gaming.

Mr. Phearun said that any form of online betting outside of licensed casinos was banned.

“I would like to specify that any sort of game outside the casinos is illegal so we urge the local authority to crack down on it,” he said.

“Presently, we have some big foreign companies that are working on the server from UK or Spain coming to meet us for more engagement,” he said.

“Of course, we are willing to work on it so we can manage it well and avoid any risks in the future. Now we are in the process of creating the gaming law, so right now we need to learn more about development of the gaming industry.”

Interactive Gaming Regulation & Legal Measure Online gaming