Cambodia to give 165 Chinese the boot over illegal gambling ring

This past March, police in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province conducted raids of two locations suspected of running illegal online gambling rings. Their suspicions confirmed, the officers detained a massive amount of individuals, of which 165 were Chinese nationals. Now, all of those will most likely be deported from the country this weekend, according to a report by the Phnom Penh Post.

According to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior’s General Department of Immigration, Uk Hai Seila, China is going to send a plane to retrieve the individuals. He added, “We are preparing the documentation and the Chinese side also needs to arrange the flight, but we expect the aircraft to arrive as soon as possible, perhaps on April 7 or 8.”

Working with the Siem Reap court prosecutor, law enforcement officials raided the two gambling rings on March 28. Both were being operated in the village of Vihear Chin in Svay Dangkum and police detained the Chinese nationals and confiscated 150 computers.

During interrogations, the police learned that the operations had been running for about a month, according to a statement by Kim Cheasan, the deputy chief of the Siem Reap Immigration Police Department. Out of all 165 arrested, only 35 had passports.