The incident of actor Wang Xing being kidnapped in Thailand has once again brought Southeast Asian online gambling companies to the top of the hot search.
Over the years, I have come into contact with many people related to online gambling, including practitioners, victims, family members, rescuers, and public security. Many things are not achieved overnight; they are a long-term accumulation and evolutionary process.
1. Most of the park owners have criminal records in China and have fled abroad. Who is supporting them? Why can't these cases of Chinese deceiving Chinese be banned? What if the entire park is cut off from electricity and the internet?
2. How do these suspects with multiple identities and multiple passports enter the country and wander around Southeast Asia? How much support does the local government provide?
3. If the victims can gradually improve in the park, do they still want to return to their country? After tasting certain power and status, has the park become their comfort zone?
There are too many issues worth pondering, and what I write can only provide some references.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2022, in Sihanoukville, Cambodia (referred to as Westport), just at dawn, the roads were still wet after the rain, and there were still sporadic raindrops in the sky.
Around 5 a.m., Luo Ding, after his roommate fell asleep, bypassed the surveillance cameras and the small alley behind the "online investment park." He climbed over four fences about 1.5 meters high and barbed wire, and ran wildly up the small hill behind the park.
It was not until he saw the taxi at the end of the road that Luo Ding dared to stop. He was sure he had successfully escaped from an "online investment park" called "Old Mountain Top."
The so-called "online investment park" is actually a gathering place for online fraud gangs. When recounting this experience, Luo Ding said he seized the "only chance to escape."
1. From Chef to "Dog Promoter"
At the end of December 2021, a fellow Hunanese encouraged Luo Ding to go to Westport, Cambodia, to work as a "chef": a monthly base salary of 10,000 yuan, and commissions if the business was booming. Thinking of his debts at home and the need to support his child, Luo Ding decided to go to Westport to "strike gold."
To avoid customs inspections, this fellow Hunanese took Luo Ding and four others on a smuggling route. They started from the Yunnan border, walked mountain roads to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and then took a car to Westport, Cambodia.
Upon arriving in Westport, this fellow Hunanese delivered Luo Ding to an online gambling company in the "Royal Park," where the promised "chef" position turned into "promotion."
"Promotion," often called "dog promotion," is the lowest position in the food chain of online gambling companies. Its daily work involves using different tactics on social media to induce customers to gamble money on "betting sites" (online gambling website addresses).
The more common betting site is known as the "pig-killing plate," for example, creating a high-quality single persona on social media, targeting domestic singles as potential customers, developing romantic relationships with them, and then guiding them to invest.
In the early stages of investment, "dog promoters" first let customers recharge 500 yuan, 1000 yuan and promptly cash back, which is called giving some "sweetness." Later, when the customer's recharge amount reaches a certain number, and no more money can be obtained, the online gambling company's backend will lock the betting site, requiring the "dog promoter" to cut off contact with the customer, ultimately achieving the purpose of "killing the pig."
An employee of an online gambling company, Zhao Song, said that in Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries, online gambling companies are fully equipped with business departments, administrative departments, customer service departments, logistics departments, etc.
The business department is the core department, often managed in a team mode, with ranks in order of supervisor, team leader, promoter, usually with 3 to 5 people per team, larger teams having up to 8 to 10 people. The supervisor reports directly to the boss.
It is common in the online gambling industry to add the word "dog" before each job title, such as "dog HR," "dog promoter," "dog supervisor," etc., to mock the industry's bad habit of "doing anything to achieve goals."
When Luo Ding realized he was tricked into being a "dog promoter," he felt utterly hopeless. On his first day at work, the supervisor scolded Luo Ding and more than ten other newcomers, "You who are here for the first time, do you understand the rules? You must obey as soon as you come, or what awaits you are handcuffs and electric batons!"
They were as insignificant as ants. "When you get a company-issued mobile phone, your life might no longer be your own," Luo Ding said. Once inside, he lost his personal freedom; he lived and ate there, could not go out, and people occasionally came to check his phone.
The online gambling company issued 10 mobile phones to Luo Ding's team, each with one account. Well-performing "dog promoters" could have 20 mobile phones.
To prevent tracking and positioning by mainland Chinese police, online gambling companies cheaply purchased a large number of Cambodian or Hong Kong Chinese SIM cards, and "dog promoters" changed their numbers every few days.
"Everyone is chatting all the time. Online, men can (in front of customers) pretend to be women, and women can pretend to be men," Luo Ding said. The team leader required him to greet 50 people every day and add 5 to 10 new friends.
The daily work hours start from 12 hours. "Dog promoters" also had to send screenshots of their daily work to the team group. If they did not complete their tasks, they would be forced to work overtime, and in severe cases, they could only sleep 3 to 4 hours a day.
Luo Ding initially worked on the "European and American plate," specifically targeting Chinese living in European and American countries. If he encountered English-speaking customers, the online gambling company would provide a translator.
Due to slow typing and unfamiliarity with computer operations, Luo Ding's "dog promoter" work did not last long, and he was soon arranged by the online gambling company to another position: he was required to conduct telephone fraud. On his busiest day, he made about 1000 calls, and indeed, a small portion of "customers" were deceived.
2. "No matter how big the crime, money can settle it"
However, the boss of the Royal Park was still dissatisfied with Luo Ding's work ability. Soon, he directly sold him for about 10,000 US dollars to another park in Westport called "Old Mountain Top."
Since 2016, many Chinese investors, real estate developers, and gambling operators have poured into Westport, Cambodia. Taking advantage of the legal conditions of the Cambodian gambling industry, a batch of illegal online gambling companies also sprouted in the casinos of Westport, which are also known as "spinach companies."
Most of Westport's online gambling companies are "hidden" in the following online gambling parks, including White Sand Phase I, White Sand Phase II, Kaibo Chinatown, Jinsui Chinatown, Qixinghai, Old Mountain Top, South Sea, etc.
The two major parks are concentrated online gambling parks. They are close to each other, with more than twenty buildings filled with various online gambling and telecommunications fraud companies.
Each park is about the size of four medium-sized sports stadiums. The park's service facilities are complete, with restaurants, hotels, KTVs, and supermarkets all relying on the consumption of online gambling company personnel, and these shopkeepers call themselves "vegetable farmers."
In March 2021, Li Kaixiang originally came to Westport with the idea of "seeing the world." He asked a friend for a job and worked as a helper in a restaurant in the Green Giant Park, collecting money and helping out, earning 6000 yuan per month.
But he gradually discovered that Westport is a place where survival depends on US dollars, "no matter how big the crime, money can settle it."
In November of the same year, after Li Kaixiang's contract with the restaurant expired, he moved out of the park's restaurant overnight, planning to go to Phnom Penh the next day to buy a plane ticket home. That night, as Li Kaixiang walked on the road leading to the hotel on Westport's No. 4 Road, suddenly, three men came out of a black van and threatened him with a knife under the guise of "recommending a job," selling him to the White Sand Phase II park.
Li Kaixiang was handcuffed and locked in a room for three days, during which he was subjected to brainwashing by the online gambling company's supervisor and team leader. The supervisor occasionally came to ask him, "Have you thought it through? You only have three options: work with us, let your family pay money to redeem you, or sell you."
Three days later, the unyielding Li Kaixiang was sold to an online gambling company. This online gambling company's office building had two armed security guards, holding electric batons, and the main gate required a card to enter and exit. The park had security patrolling 24 hours a day.
"That was the darkest park in Westport, and it often resulted in deaths," Li Kaixiang recalled. At that time, the curtains in his dormitory were black, and the balcony windows were welded with steel bars. Whether day or night, the lights in the dormitory had to be on, "from the outside, you couldn't tell that people lived inside. Escape was basically hopeless."
When Li Kaixiang was forced to go to work every day, he could hear the sound of "sizzling" in the office, "that was the sound of someone being electrocuted."
In addition to Westport, Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh and Poipet Province, which borders Thailand, are also gathering places for online gambling companies.
Starting in June 2020, Zhang Yi worked in an online gambling company in the capital Phnom Penh for a year and a half under mental pressure. This young man from Guizhou was deceived by his nephew. Before boarding the plane, he learned that his destination was Cambodia.
"During that year and a half, I had to constantly justify my deceitful behavior to myself. If I didn't do well, I also had to worry about being beaten by the company (people)," Zhang Yi said. More often, he chose to stare at the ceiling in the dead of night, thinking of home, his wife, children, and other relatives.
Usually, after working in an online gambling company for half a year, you can leave without paying any recruitment fees to the company, including airfare, visa, quarantine hotel, etc. However, most people's passports are retained by the company, and whether they can leave is still up to the company.
Zhang Yi's supervisor just kept delaying, from half a year to a year and a half, still not allowing Zhang Yi to leave.
The word "trust" does not exist in online gambling companies. Zhang Yi said, "Colleagues all use pseudonyms, never sharing personal information. You don't know where I'm from, and I don't know your age."
3. "City of Online Gambling" from Boom to Decline
Located on the southwest coast of Cambodia, Sihanoukville has always been famous for its sunshine and beaches, with a local population of only about 220,000.
In 2016, Cambodia designated Westport as a special economic zone. With the Philippine gambling industry also being hit, almost all the world's gambling practitioners, investors, and real estate developers flocked to Westport, crowning this small fishing village with the titles of "Second Macau" and "Shenzhen of Southeast Asia."
The gambling industry is a legal industry in Cambodia, and operators only need to apply for a casino license according to standards. As of 2019, Cambodia had 193 registered legal casinos, 91 of which were in Westport.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Westport was once a land of adventure and gold rush for Chinese people. At its peak, the number of Chinese people in Westport reached 500,000. From 2017, there were already more than two hundred direct flights from China to Cambodia every week.
With the influx of Chinese real estate developers, local land prices also soared. From 2017 to 2019, the price of land in the center of Westport skyrocketed from 50 US dollars per square meter to 5000 US dollars per square meter, a hundredfold increase.
Many Chinese people here do not feel too much like strangers, but rather as if they are in a small Chinese county town. As a landmark of Westport, the Golden Lion Square is surrounded by Chinese advertising signs, with a Carrefour supermarket to the east and a Sichuan restaurant to the west. Over the years, service industries primarily in Chinese have sprung up like bamboo shoots after a rain.
"Because of the high wages, Cambodian girls are used to working in casinos, KTVs, or bars in Westport, while boys are more likely to work as security guards or waiters," said Liu Xiao, who works in the catering industry in Westport.
"Vegetable farmers" also adopt two pricing standards. Liu Xiao said, "A skewer sold to Cambodians only costs 1 US dollar, but sold to Chinese people, it costs 5 US dollars."
A popular Chinese golden oldie in the local area, "No Dreams, Why Come to Westport," is always liked by online gambling practitioners to sing when business is booming: "Carrying dreams to this place, seeing everywhere are life's gambling fields."
The gambling industry has brought opportunities for local economic development, but it has also laid hidden dangers. According to World Bank data, the gambling industry has brought at least 2 billion US dollars in revenue to Cambodia, with tax revenue reaching 85 million US dollars in 2019 alone. Even in 2020, impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the gambling industry still contributed 40 million US dollars in tax revenue.
In Westport, one step is heaven, and the next step might be hell. The kidnapping, shootings, human trafficking, and other serious criminal incidents related to the online gambling company's business continue unabated. According to statistics from the Cambodian police, in 2018 alone, the crime rate in Westport skyrocketed by 25%.
The Cambodian government began to rectify Westport. On August 18, 2019, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the rare "8·18 Gambling Ban," defining online gambling as a criminal offense.
Under the strict "Gambling Ban," a large amount of foreign capital and labor began to flee. According to data from the Cambodian Ministry of Labor, among the 72 casinos in Westport, 4 have closed, and 23 have announced layoffs, affecting more than 7,000 practitioners.
Currently, some online gambling companies have already moved to Dubai, the Philippines, Georgia, and other places. According to estimates by Zhao Song, an online gambling practitioner, there are still 100,000 Chinese people left in Westport. In 2021, Zhao Song also followed the branch company to Dubai.
4. "8·18 Gambling Ban" Instead Stimulates Human Trafficking?
After Cambodia implemented the "8·18 Gambling Ban," some real estate developers and investors fled Westport, but the gray and black industries related to online gambling companies became even more rampant.
Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the closure of the China-Cambodia border and sharp reductions in flights, the fresh labor force for online gambling companies became increasingly scarce, directly stimulating a surge in human trafficking cases.
According to statistics from the Cambodian Ministry of Interior, in the first half of 2021 alone, the country cracked down on 198 cases of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, a significant increase from 63 cases in the same period in 2020.
"Online gambling victims are like a piece of meat on a chopping board." Chen Baorong, captain of the "China-Cambodia Volunteer Team," a civilian volunteer organization, said. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the ransom for kidnapping a person required 3000 US dollars, but now, it has risen to 10,000 US dollars.
Chen Baorong has lived in Cambodia for more than twenty years. In November 2021, he began leading the "China-Cambodia Volunteer Team" to rescue more than three hundred Chinese people trapped in Cambodian online gambling companies. Many victims came from divorced families or were left-behind children, with the youngest girl being only 14 years old.
Li Kaixiang was one of the rescues by the "China-Cambodia Volunteer Team." Before contacting Chen Baorong, the online gambling company had already threatened Li Kaixiang's parents to pay a ransom.
"(At that time) My dad was planning to sell the house and gather 500,000 yuan to redeem me. He said, as long as I could come back, it would be fine," Li Kaixiang recalled. If he reported to the Westport police, not only would he not receive help, but he might also face even more brutal beatings.
Westport's online gambling companies have become pervasive, even infiltrating public authorities. "If someone in an online gambling company calls the police, the next day the boss of the online gambling company might come looking for you," Liu Xiao said. "The Westport police station has about a dozen deputy directors, and you never know who told the online gambling boss."
In September 2021, the Cambodian English media "Khmer Times" published an investigative report, revealing a series of criminal issues such as kidnapping, human trafficking, and sex trade in the Westport park.
"Although the Westport
