Cambodia to suspend all online gambling broadcasts from October 2026 amid anti-fraud crackdown

Prime Minister Hun Manet has ordered Cambodia to suspend all online broadcasts and internet gambling conducted from the country’s casinos starting next month. The move is framed as an anti-fraud and cybercrime measure, and it matters for PSPs because live gaming is exactly where payment flows get harder to trace.

1. The directive covers all online gambling broadcasts and internet gambling operations run from casino premises in Cambodia, with the suspension set to begin in October 2026. The core problem, according to the government, is that live games make financial flows difficult to track.
2. Cambodia’s decision comes after increased UN scrutiny and a drop in tourism. In the first half of 2026, foreign tourist arrivals fell by almost half as reports about scammers and human traffickers weighed on the country’s image.
3. Since July 2025, Cambodia has been running a broad crackdown on the sector: licenses were revoked at 18 casinos and suspended at another 9, anti-fraud raids were carried out in 663 locations, and 86 major scam operations were shut down.
4. Authorities said about 30,000 suspects from 39 countries were arrested, and more than 22,000 foreign victims of forced labor from 38 countries were rescued and returned home. That gives a sense of how large and cross-border the enforcement picture has become.
5. Cambodia has told the international community that there are no longer cyber-scam centers in the country. At the same time, officials acknowledge that some fraud continues in smaller, harder-to-detect forms, operating from rented rooms, hotels, cars, or cafes.