Background
Wo Casino is located in Kampot Province, roughly 1.5 kilometres from the Prek Chak international border crossing with Vietnam. Wo Casino’s official name is Casino Khnom, or My Casino in English. The adjacent scam compound is often referred to as Baima Park (白马园区). It was shutdown in February 2026, several weeks after its alleged owner was arrested.
The casino was previously open to the public, but along the side and to the rear is a complex of more than 30 buildings. Entry gates to these areas were controlled by security guards, with bars fixed to the windows of the compound buildings. At the time it was shut down it was rapidly expanding.
Many posts can be found on scam industry Telegram channels that mention Wo Casino, mostly using the name Baima Park. These posts talk of physical violence and detention, with those who want to leave forced to pay ‘compensation’ in the thousands of dollars. As with many other compounds in Cambodia, they mention groups relocating here from Myanmar in the last few years.
The post below says scams conducted from this compound target people in China, the United States, and Europe. It alleges people must work 16-hour days, are subjected to various corporal punishments, and have personal phones confiscated. It claims that a large percentage of the workforce was recruited through deception, and the fee to leave can be US$30,000 and upwards.
Wo Casino was identified as an online scam site in a 2025 report by Amnesty International. Amnesty researchers visited the location in 2024 and spoke with two residents. One said that military police came to their house two days earlier to ask if they had seen a woman who had run away from Wo Casino. The second said he had seen several Chinese nationals who had attempted to run away from the site. This person told Amnesty that he told those people to return to Wo Casino as the guards would find them and hurt them.
Amnesty observed perimeter walls with excessive use of barbed wire, cages or bars on windows, and more than three security guards at entrance/exit points. Based on this, testimony from local residents, and media reporting, Amnesty concluded deprivation of liberty occurred at this location.
Evacuation and Shutdown
During a nationwide crackdown on online scams in July 2025, Kampot’s provincial governor advised Wo Casino to strictly comply with gambling regulations, but there were no public reports of the location being targeted by law enforcement.
This changed on 15 January 2026 when images and videos circulated showing people flooding out of the park.
This coincided with the arrest of Cambodian tycoon Ly Kuong, who was charged with illegal recruitment for exploitation, aggravated fraud, organised crime, and money laundering relating to alleged offences committed since 2019. Ly Kuong was already known to be linked to the Huangle 1 and Huangle 2 scam compounds in Sihanoukville (see profiles here and here), and in February 2026, officials told reporters that he was also the owner of Wo Casino.
Cambodian officials invited reporters to view the compound. They documented clear evidence that the site housed online scam operations. Images show one set made up to look like an Indian police station, which will likely have been used to stage law enforcement impersonation scams targeting Indian victims.
Authorities told Reuters that no arrests were made at Wo Casino, with Kampot provincial police chief Mao Chanmothurith explaining: ‘We have only about 1,000 policemen in the entire province and there are about 300 military policemen … Even with both forces combined, we still can’t stop them because there were about 6,000 to 7,000 of them when they left this place’.
Incidents
The first known media report on this location was from Voice of Democracy (VOD) in 2022, when reporters followed up on a message that a Chinese national named Chen left on the Facebook page of former prime minister Hun Sen.
‘Hello Prime Minister Hun Sen, I am a Chinese. I was tricked into a scam park in Baima City, Kampot Province, forcing me to work in fraud, if I didn’t work they would shock me with an electric baton, hit me with a stick, please help me, I really I don’t want to die, please.’
Chen was being held at Wo Casino. VOD travelled to the location with Yuan, a friend of Chen, as he attempted to rescue him. Yuan spoke with local police who were already familiar with Wo Casino, having dealt with similar cases before.
Chen said he was paid US$1,000 per month and had a one-year contract, but that he was forced to sign this and was not allowed to leave after the year was complete. Hearing he had a contract, one police officer said: ‘This is not detention, since they give him a salary.’ Another said: ‘There is no detention, it is just they do not allow him to get out.’
There followed a complicated back and forth with authorities before Chen was released (readers are encouraged to read the original VOD report for more details). Once at the police station, Chen was questioned about his Facebook post. A police official told reporters: ‘He dared to comment on samdech’s Facebook, and his comment was not true … [his comment was a] big issue for the leaders.’ Chen was taken away in handcuffs.
A director at the Ministry of Interior later said Chen was under investigation for spreading fake news about the conditions of his detention. He said: ‘At first, he commented on samdech’s page that he was mistreated, beaten, electrocuted … but when [officers] asked him, he said there had not been [abuse], and he had commented like this because he wanted others to pay attention to take him out of there.’
We know that when authorities do intervene to remove people from scam compounds, these individuals are often forced by their captors to sign statements saying they were not harmed or forced to work. These theatrics are then used by the police to deny that any crime took place.
In May 2024, an X user posted a message about an Indian national who was offered a job in Cambodia but had his passport confiscated on arrival. Those holding him demanded a ransom from his family. The man was being held at Wo Casino. Two days later the Indian Embassy in Cambodia posted a reply saying it had already taken action.
Also in 2024, a Vietnamese girl was rescued from Wo Casino after Vietnamese police were alerted to her situation. Reports state that she was being forced to work at Wo Casino after being bought from another casino in Bavet. Vietnamese authorities coordinated with Cambodian counterparts to negotiate her release. Reports say she was born in 2009, which would have made her around 15 years old in 2024.
In 2023, Vietnamese media reported that border guards rescued two men aged 20 and 25 from Wo Casino after receiving a request for help from one of their brothers. One of the men was enticed to Cambodia by someone he met online, but when he arrived, he was trafficked to Wo Casino and was forced to pay US$2,440 to be released.
There have been at least two fires in the casino’s dormitory buildings in February and May 2023.
In March 2025, Kampot’s provincial environment department inspected the site and ordered Wo Casino to stop discharging waste water into surrounding areas. Later in May, Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment included Wo Casino in a list of inspected companies found to be discharging contaminated water into public water sources.
Which Actors and Companies Have Been Linked to Wo Casino?
The license for Wo Casino was granted in 2022 to the company Zhou Cheng K.P Hotel Co., Ltd. The company is chaired by Cambodian national Ly Ratanak and Chinese national Zhou Cheng is a director. As noted above, Cambodian officials told the press that tycoon Ly Kuong owns the property, which suggests that Ly Ratanak is a family member.
The residential address provided for Ly Ratanak on the company’s registration documents is the same used by Cambodian national Koy Kieng Meng. Koy is a director at Conglomerate Development Group Co., Ltd., which has a casino license for Peak Casino. This is located at a site in Sihanoukville that was also raided by police in January 2026 (profiled here). He is also a director at Bao Shi International Entertainment Co., Ltd. which holds the casino licence for Huang Chao International in Sihanoukville, another known scam compound (profiled here).
Koy is also chair of Inter-Asia International Business Co., Ltd., which was set up by She Zhijiang. Koy took over chairmanship in 2019 when She stood down. She Zhijiang is a Chinese-born organised crime figure who was extradited to China from Thailand in November 2025 to face illegal gambling charges. He is one of the masterminds behind the Yatai New City scam compound in Myawaddy, Myanmar (profiled here).
Location of Wo Casino
Wo Casino in the News
2026
11 February: ‘Cambodia says it has closed almost 200 scam centers in fraud crackdown’, Reuters. Link.
2025
26 June: Amnesty International, ‘I Was Someone Else’s Property’: Slavery, Human Trafficking and Torture in Cambodia’s Scamming Compounds. Link.
2 May: ‘Ministry of Environment Names 28 Polluting Factories in Cambodia’, Khmer Times. Link.
26 March: ‘Casino at Centre of Extortion Claims Advised to Prohibit the Discharge of Wastewater’, Khmer Times. Link.
26 March: ‘មន្ត្រីបរិស្ថានខេត្តកំពត ចុះពិនិត្យ និងណែនាំក្រុមហ៊ុន «កាស៊ីណូខ្ញុំ» ឲ្យបញ្ឈប់បង្ហូរទឹកកខ្វក់ចេញមកក្រៅប៉ះពាល់បរិស្ថាន [Kampot Provincial Environmental Officials Inspect and Advise “My Casino” Company to Stop Discharging Dirty Water into the Environment]’, Kampuchea Thmey Daily. Link.
2024
1 February: Van Duong & Tien Vinh, ‘Bức thư cảm động gửi lực lượng Bộ đội Biên phòng Kiên Giang [A Touching Letter to the Kien Giang Border Guard force]’, Tạp chí Doanh Nghiệp và Tiếp thị Điện tử. Link.
2023
27 May: ‘អគ្គិភ័យឆេះកាស៊ីណូខ្ញុំ នៅខេត្តកំពត [Fire Breaks Out at Casino in Kampot Province]’, Kampuchea Thmey Daily. Link.
11 April: ‘Two Vietnamese Victims of Human Trafficking Rescued from Cambodia’, VietNamNet Global. Link.
27 February: ‘អគ្គីភ័យឆេះកាស៊ីណូនៅក្បែរច្រកទ្វារព្រែកចាក សង្ស័យបណ្តាលមកពីទុស្សេចរន្តអគ្គិសនី [Fire at Casino Near Prek Chak Gate Suspected to Be Caused By Electrical Fault]’, BTV News. Link.
2022
24 May: Mech Dara & Andrew Haffner, ‘A Friend’s Journey Attempting Rescue from Alleged Slave Compound’, Voice of Democracy. Link.
Note: If any links are down or blocked, they may be available on the Wayback Machine.
