Four Vietnamese employees of a Cambodian border casino have been charged in connection with the death of a Vietnamese gambler who owed them money.

On Sunday, police in the town of Bavet in Cambodia’s Svay Rieng province arrested four staff members – one man and three women – of the Phipop Thmey Casino in connection with the death of 42-year-old Nguyen Young Duong, a Vietnamese national found dead in his hotel room at the casino.

According to police, Mr. Young Duong had crossed the border to gamble at the Phipop Thmey Casino, only to lose all his money. The four accused reportedly lent Young Duong more money, which he also lost at the casino’s gambling tables.

Unable to repay the loan, Young Duong was detained by the four accused and forced to contact relatives back home in the hope that they could deliver his ‘ransom’. When the relatives couldn’t raise the money in time, the four suspects reportedly “beat or tortured” Young Duong to death. A police officer told the Khmer Times that Young Duong’s corpse showed “spots and serious wounds around his throat and body.”