Chinese and Cambodian authorities have arrested almost 1,000 people suspected of engaging in online gambling, telecommunications fraud and gang crimes this year, according to information released by China’s Ministry of Public Security.
As reported by Chinese state-owned media outlet Xinhua, around half of those arrests have come in the five weeks since Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen announced the country would immediately stop issuing new online gaming licenses and would not renew current licenses when they expire at the end of the year.
Xinhua said that, by 30 August 2019, 335 Chinese nationals suspected of online gambling crime and 155 suspected of telecommunication fraud had been captured.
Police also revealed they had destroyed a “large number” of telecom fraud and internet gambling sites in Sihanoukville, Svay Rieng Province and Phnom Penh with 176 people arrested. Of those, 127 were taken into custody when two telecom fraud dens were destroyed on 14 August and another 27 arrested when an online gambling den was destroyed a week later.
It has previously been reported that around 10,000 Chinese nationals had fled Sihanoukville in the weeks immediately after Cambodia announced its crackdown on online gambling.
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