In perhaps the most bizarre gambling-related news of the year, Thai F-16 fighter jets have bombed a casino on the Cambodia border, claiming it is a military headquarters and alleged drone base.
The attack came amid renewed hostilities between Thailand and Cambodia over the demarcation of their border that has seen fighting flare between the “frenemies” throughout 2025 and led to the fall of the pro-gaming Shinawatra government in Thailand.
The dispute is over the ownership of a complex of ancient Hindu temples dedicated to Lord Shiva at Prasat Ta Muen in the Dangrek Mountains located between Thailand’s Surin Province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey Province.
The border dispute between the two southeast Asian nations has rumbled for decades, over interpretations of a 1907 colonial era map, when Thailand was an independent country known as Siam and Cambodia was a French Indo-China colony, along with Vietnam and Laos.
Shiva Temple
In July this year fighting between Thailand and Cambodia again erupted over the Shiva temple, leading to the evacuation of an estimated 300,000 people from the border region and the death of 48 mostly-civilians.
The crisis hammered the lucrative cross-border casino business–conservatively estimated to be worth US$500 million a year (£374.39m)–and led directly to the fall of Thailand’s pro-gambling Shinatrawa administration after prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra outraged Thais by calling Cambodia strongman Hun Sen “Uncle” during a peace-brokering telephone conversation.
Paetongtarn’s defenestration also effectively derailed the Shinatrawa clan’s longstanding ambition to bring legal regulated casino-resort gaming to Thailand, the world’s seventh most-visited country, which attracts some 35 million tourists every year.
Heavy Weaponary
Following the July outbreak of hostilities, U.S. President Donald Trump stepped in to broker a ceasefire, a deal he later claimed to be one of eight world conflicts he had ended as he angled to win the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
More than 50,000 people have been evacuated from the border region and at least a score of Thai and Khmer border troops and civilians killed since the bombing of the casino on Monday.
A spokesperson at the Cambodian Ministry of Defence Ministry has affirmed that Thailand triggered the latest wave of hostilities.
“[We] urge that Thailand immediately stop all hostile activities that threaten peace and stability in the region,” said the spokesperson.
But Thai sources claim that it was Cambodian troops who first crossed the 500-mile frontier in several incursions and opened fire.
A Thai military spokesman alleged the Cambodian casino, near the Chong An Ma border pass, in the Nam Yuen District of Ubon Ratchathani Province, was bombed because it was a “command centre for drones and was used to store heavy weaponry and munitions”.
