International human rights group Amnesty International claims that the Cambodian government’s actions to wipe out scam centers in the nation “has failed to dismantle the vast majority of sites in the country.”
In a report dated 8 June, the group claims that “more than 70% of the compounds identified by Amnesty appear to have been bypassed by the crackdown,” adding that police work at other compounds “missed victims and left them facing horrific abuses.”
The group in mid-2025 reported that more than 50 scam compounds in Cambodia were in operation, with a new report this year identifying “an additional 33 scamming compounds.” The initial report sparked a nation-wide crackdown on scam operations, with the government claiming to have shut down over 200 such centers.
Now, Amnesty claims that “of a total 86 compounds identified by Amnesty International, there was evidence of state intervention at only 24.” It added that “when interventions did occur, Amnesty found that they were often ineffective, undermined by apparent collusion between compound managers and police, or only carried out in reaction to some form of public pressure.”
The government in early May of this year indicated that its implementation of the Royal Government Command mandate to “conduct operations, inspections and searches” was “without exception at any casino locations.”
In late April the government said it had shut down 91 casinos said to be scam fronts after raiding more than 250 illicit scam hubs in the prior nine months. This, it claimed, resulted in the deportation of over 13,000 foreign nationals from 33 countries.
However, around the same time Amnesty accused Cambodia of renewing the licenses of 12 Cambodian casinos despite alleged evidence of severe human rights abuses having taken place within their confines. The human rights group said, “Authorities must explain why casinos with documented links to trafficking and torture continue to receive official approval.”
Amnesty International at the time called for the immediate suspension of the gambling licenses of the 12 casinos, stating “this is a high-risk sector that demands investigation and accountability at every level of the corporate chain.”
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