paparazzi wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2019 9:15 am I guess the casino owners down on the coast scratching their heads about all the empty space upstairs if the online gambling finishes.

Couple of the bigger casinos are about to upgrade actually. One just rented big facilities (3 x 20 floor towers) and will be extending soon there while keeping the old facilities. And couple big operators from Macau opening their casinos soon too. It's only the small casinos that have online operations and heavily rely on that side.

frank lee bent wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 10:58 pm Does HE have a record of changing his mind?
China is intent on banning online gambling throughout the region.
Presumably that will carry a great deal of weight.
There is a danger that allowing these criminals to continue will disrupt the social fabric to the point of revolt that outweighs the short term chaos created by their withdrawal.

exactly. If China farts, Cambodia stinks.

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 11:21 pm ^^^ I agree Frank. (provisionally)
This move to ban online gambling and to thoroughly clean up S'ville suits HE.
I am becoming more convinced he is serious about cleaning up the whole show.

He can do it now that he has a powerful patron and does not need to rely so much on the Barons. In fact he is best served by emasculating them.
We could be in for the first ever real spring clean.

And Cambodia is in a very different position to the Philippines with regards to defying China's will. There has been no indication of that on any front.

Thats a viable scenario, as it doesnt require purely noble intentions from HE, for which he isnt known for.
HE might want to beef up his personal security detail though.

I'll be on the side of the field rooting with the "throw 'em out" crowd. I could not have been sadder when I kept reading about the destruction of Sihanoukville, as it was my chief retirement destination for several years. I wonder, even after a Chinese retreat, whether the remains of S'ville would be livable. I can only hope.

Chinese media: Cambodia gambling exodus overblown
BY Steven Stradbrooke ON September 19, 2019
Chinese gambling operators may not be fleeing Cambodia in the tens of thousands after all and doubt is being cast on the permanence of Cambodia’s online gambling ban.

On Wednesday, the Chinese state-run media outlet Global Times quoted Lin Jiaxu, a reporter for the state-run People’s Daily, disputing widespread reports that Chinese nationals were fleeing Cambodia by the tens of thousands after the local government announced an end to its online gambling licensing regime last month.

Cambodia’s Sihanoukville region, which had witnessed a massive influx of Chinese nationals in recent years, was reportedly the base from which most Chinese had opted to flee. Chinese nationals were said to control up to three-quarters of the casinos in Sihanoukville, and many of these facilities also offered online gambling operations that catered to mainland Chinese customers.

Lin told the Global Times that the actual number of Chinese nationals who’d left Cambodia was “about 3,000 to 5,000, and most of them were driven out by the country’s online gambling ban.” Lin said many Chinese had come to view Cambodia’s gambling sector as a ‘shortcut to wealth via cheating and extortion.’

While China praised Cambodia’s decision to stop issuing any new online licenses and its pledge not to renew existing licenses once they expire, Cambodia’s government appears to be still working out the nuts and bolts of implementing this strategy.

Last week, the Nikkei Asian Review quoted Ros Phearun, deputy director of Cambodia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (and the public face of the country’s gambling updates), saying the government was “not sure yet if it’s an absolute ban or not.”

Phearun suggested stakeholders should “wait and see the [long-delayed gambling] draft law first.” Cambodia’s government has been promising to deliver its new gambling legislation for the better part of a decade, and the latest deadline for delivery is early next year.

Full article: https://calvinayre.com/2019/09/19/busin ... overblown/

October 23, 2019
Online gambling ban hurts Sihanoukville’s real estate, says property expert
Phan Soumy
Some apartment owners in Sihanoukville are struggling to pay off debts, borrowed specifically to build apartments to rent to Chinese nationals, after tens of thousands of Chinese people left Sihanoukville, following a recent ban on online gambling.

In an interview with RFI Khmer, a provincial coordinator for ADHOC in Preak Sihanouk, Ms. Cheap Sotheary, said those borrowed money from banks to build apartments for renting out to Chinese people are facing with a potential risk of not being able to pay off their debts.

To attract more tenants, some owners lowered down their rental fee as low as 50 percent, she added.

On August 18, prime minister HE issued a directive that halted the issuance of new internet gambling permits and that means the existing licences will not be renewed once expired. The government claimed the move is to address the rising cases of money extortions around online gambling venues.

The gaming industry is believed to be one of the main reasons that drew both investors and tourists from China to Cambodia over the past few years, especially to Sihanoukville, Bavet and Poipet where the industry booms.

The flash investments and sudden influx of Chinese people caused property prices high in town and growing demands of accommodations.

Hundreds of new apartments were recently built mostly by locals who borrowed money from banks to supply this huge demand. That’s why they are crashed when a large number of Chinese people left the city.

According to a report by Khmer Times, from August 18 to September 7, about 140,000 Chinese nationals left Cambodia.

At the Cambodia’s Q3 real estate market update, Mr. James Hodge, director of CBRE Cambodia said that the government’s recent ban on online gambling started having impacts on the country’s real estate sector specifically in Sihanoukville.

Mr. Hodge said, “generally speaking we started to see some reduction in land prices in Sihanoukville, as some people are putting lands on the market there.”
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50653599/o ... extension/

I smell another backflip coming.