Cambodian Online Gambling Rogue Operation Frees 60 Trafficked Thai Workers

According to The Bangkok Post, the victims were deceived into working for the illegal operation after answering false job advertisements in Sihanoukville, a casino boomtown on Cambodia’s west coast.

Once there, they were kept in “slave-like” conditions. Those who refused to comply were beaten and threatened with being sold for slave labor. They were rescued after their captors demanded a ransom from their relatives, who were able to notify Thai authorities.

The Post reports the relatives’ pleas were amplified by social media and reached the ears of Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. He ordered the Royal Thai Police to cooperate with Cambodian authorities to intervene.

Authorities arrested four Chinese, four Cambodians, and two Thai suspects at the scene.

Three More Rescued
Two weeks earlier, three Thai women were rescued from an underground online gambling operation under similar circumstances, the Post said. The women, identified only as Jenjira, Pornnapa, and Sasinipa, were being held by an online gambling operation in Poipet, another Cambodian boomtown on the Thai border.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/blackstones-raise-makes-it-time-crown-fold-2021-11-19/<