Sihanoukville casino boom draws mixed reactions in Cambodia

Sihanoukville’s transformation into Cambodia’s tourism and gambling is both a blessing and a curse.

Cambodia’s coastal province has seen a dramatic rise in the number of tourists that new rooms are needed to accommodate the influx of local and foreign visitors in the area.

Khmer Times reported that the Sihanoukville hotel sector will be opening 1,000 new rooms and 10 new hotels this year because the current 10,000 hotel and guesthouse rooms could no longer accommodate the tide of tourists in the area.

Data showed that Sihanoukville welcomed 1 million local tourists and 470,000 foreign visitors in 2017. An estimated 120,000 Chinese visited Sihanoukville last year to gamble in the coastal province’s 10 casinos, twice the number recorded in 2016.