In scenes reminiscent of an exotic Bollywood movie, frontier tensions between “frenemies” Thailand and Cambodia are hitting the lucrative cross-border casino business.
Hitherto, while land casino gambling in Thailand has remained illegal, Thai and other regional gamblers have been able to get their gaming action at a cluster of foreigner-only casinos clustered just inside Cambodia on the Thai-Khmer frontier.
But new border clashes and rising tension along the contested border have hit the booming gambling trade, with Thai citizens, the largest client base, being ordered to stay in-country by their government, led by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Shinawatra is now facing growing criticism and pressure from Thai nationalists, who accuse her of being “soft” on the ancient “Angkor” enemy of Cambodia.
Cambodia and Thailand have contested sovereignty at various un-demarcated points along their 817km (508-mile) land border, which was first mapped by France when it colonised Cambodia in 1907.
Shoot-outs
There have been a number of shoot-outs between frontier troops over the years, and the latest round of hostilities was sparked by the May 28 shooting of a Cambodian soldier in the disputed border region between Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province and Thailand Ubon Ratchathani province.
At least 28 people have been killed in outbursts of border violence since 2008, when fighting broke out over an 11th-century Hindu temple.
Cambodia has around 150 land casinos, making it, by this metric, the biggest gambling hub in Southeast Asia.
Most of these casinos are concentrated along the Thai border, and citizens of Thailand–where gambling is currently illegal–form the largest body of punters by far, some 80 percent, concur most reports.
Big time “Gambler Gambler”, A.K.A. “Pad Suphapa” or “Sia Pad”, a Cambodian senator of Chinese-Thai descent is said to be the billionaire godfather behind the lucrative casino trade, a corrupt web run by Thai-Khmer politicians, military officials and businessmen with ties to the notorious former prime minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen.
Racketeers
Shadowy Indonesian and Macau Chinese racketeers also have significant links to the Cambodia casino industry, it is alleged by investigators.
The business is worth billions of Thai baht every year, hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.
For example, one casino, the Grand Diamond City, in the border city of Poipet was bought for Thai Baht 700 million (£15.8m/US$21.37m) in 2001 by Thai MP Vatana Asavahame, who attempted to sell it for Thai Baht 12 billion in 2021 (£270.92m/US$366.33m), a year before it was badly damaged in a fire that killed 24 people.
Asavahame went on the run and was subsequently sentenced, in absentia, to three-years in prison for land fraud.
Since the border casino crackdown, operators are reporting a massive 60 percent-plus drop in traffic and 40 percent decline in hotel room occupancy.
None of this augurs well for Thai leader Shinawatra’s avowed political aim to bring legal casino gambling to her homeland.
Watch this space.
