Cambodia has taken a dramatic step in its fight against scam compounds that have imprisoned innocent people, and forced them to work as virtual slaves defrauding victims via the internet around the world with romance scams and dodgy investment schemes.

But with Amnesty International simultaneously revealing that state-licensed casinos are directly linked to torture and trafficking, serious questions linger about whether enforcement will match the rhetoric.

Cambodia's Law on Combating Online Scams was signed on April 6 in a royal decree, and takes effect immediately. And its penalties are severe.

As local media reports, the ringleaders of scam centres face between five to ten years in prison and fines of up to US $250,000.

That sounds serious in itself. But if their operations involve violence, torture, illegal confinement, human trafficking, or forced labour, the sentence rises to between 10-20 years and fines up to US $500,000. The scam compound bosses whose activities lead to death face between 15-30 years - or life imprisonment.

The new law appears to recognise that many of those inside scam compounds are themselves victims, and shields those forced or coerced into scamming others from criminal liability.

According to figures from the United Nations and USAID, between 100,000-150,000 people are exploited in scam compounds across Cambodia. The industry reportedly defrauds more than US $12.5 billion annually from victims worldwide, typically with a mixture of bogus cryptocurrency investments and romance scams.

Victims are lured into the scammers' web by deceptive job adverts on Facebook and Instagram, and then trafficked into giant prison-like compounds where they are forced to conduct online scams under threat of violence.

Cambodia's government says it takes the problem seriously, and claims to have shut down more than 250 scam centres, including 92 casinos, and arrested 800 ringleaders since July 2025.

Observers have described the Cambodian authorities crackdown on scam compounds as the most significant to date, but continue to call for stronger protection for the victims, and investigations into how the organised criminal gangs operating the compounds are allegedly linked to members of the elite.

Last year the US State Department said that "official complicity, including at senior levels, inhibited effective law enforcement action against trafficking crimes" - an allegation the Cambodian government denies.

Meanwhile, the gangs continue to advertise scam job via Telegram channels claiming to need people to work as "call center staff," "translators," and other roles - even as the Cambodian authorities claim to be shutting the industry down.

Putting the legislation in place was the easy part. The hard part is going to be dismantling the criminal networks, protecting the victims, and rooting out corruption and complicity which has allowed scam compounds in Cambodia to flourish.