Легален ли онлайн блэкджек в Камбодже?

Cambodia has a sizable regulated land-based casino industry, but online gambling is a different story. Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Royal Government of Cambodia launched a nationwide crackdown on online gambling in 2019, with a direct order to the Ministry of Economy and Finance to stop renewing online gambling licences. This means that online blackjack is not legal in Cambodia in any form. Many Cambodians still play at offshore online casinos, which are not regulated by the local authorities and which the government has moved to block.

Законы об азартных играх в Камбодже

Камбоджа прошла Закон о пресечении азартных игр в 1996 году, запретив все виды азартных игр в стране для местного населения. Иностранцы же могли выбирать из десятков местных наземных казино, включая казино Naga, имеющее эксклюзивное право предлагать азартные игры в радиусе 200 километров от столицы страны Пномпеня.

The local population could play slot machines until 2009, when the Government banned them due to increased violence and confrontations caused by spiralling gambling debts.

Licensed retail casinos were also allowed to offer online gambling until August 2019, when the Royal Government decided to halt all online gambling operations within the state. The crackdown on online and illicit gambling came amid a rise in human trafficking and kidnappings related to illegal gambling operations.

These events prompted the authorities to act. In July 2020, the Minister of Economy and Finance drafted the Law on Management of Commercial Gaming, intending to regulate all forms of commercial gambling in the country. The law was adopted by the National Assembly on October 5, 2020, and signed into law by the King of Cambodia on November 14, 2020.

Law on Management of Commercial Gaming: A New Chapter for Gambling in Cambodia

As a result of the newly adopted law, the Government established the Cambodian Commercial Gaming Commission (CCGC) and tasked it with establishing regulations, licensing operators and resolving disputes.

Существует четыре игорные лицензии для коммерческих казино:

• Игры в казино, включая блэкджек
• Игры, основанные на везении
• Игры со ставками
• Другие игры

Under the law, operators can find clear information on zoning. The country has been divided into prohibited zones, where there can be no casinos, and permitted zones, where businesses can establish casino resorts.

The Government also introduced new tax obligations. Casinos located within integrated resorts are subject to a 4% tax for the VIP segment and a 7% tax on revenue for mass-market guests. Casinos located outside the integrated resorts pay a flat 7% tax. No persons under the age of 18 are permitted to gamble, and the Government set minimum capital requirements for operators.

Разрешен ли блэкджек в соответствии с новым законом об азартных играх?

Blackjack is one of the casino games permitted at resorts, alongside baccarat, slots, poker and other games. The games are inspected by the Commercial Gaming Commission of Cambodia before being offered to players. This permission is for the licensed land-based venues, and it does not extend to online play.

Можете ли вы получить доступ к оффшорным онлайн-казино?

With the decree issued in August 2019, all online gambling operations were banned from January 2020. Until then, land-based casinos with an online licence could offer online blackjack, slots and other games. Past that date, no online licences were issued or renewed.

Offshore online casinos are also banned. Many continue to allow Cambodians to set up accounts and play, and the country’s communications regulator has continued to block gambling websites. Because these sites operate outside the law, no Cambodian authority stands behind them, and there is no local recourse if one refuses to pay.

Разрешит ли Камбоджа онлайн блэкджек в будущем?

Considering the current state of the law, it is safe to say that online blackjack will not be sanctioned in Cambodia any time soon. Online blackjack is treated as illegal gambling, and the Commercial Gaming Commission is focused on cracking down on illicit gambling activity rather than licensing it.

Заключительные размышления

The gambling landscape in Cambodia has changed dramatically over the last decade. The country has gone from banning gambling outright to regulating it, but that regulation covers land-based resorts and standalone casinos only. Online casinos are prohibited, and there is no clear signal that the climate will change. If the law is ever rewritten to allow online play, blackjack would be one of the games most likely to feature, but for now the honest answer is that online blackjack is not legal in Cambodia.

If gambling is causing you or someone close to you harm, help is available. Gamblers Anonymous runs free peer-support meetings online and in many countries, and the only self-exclusion or deposit limit that will hold at an offshore casino is the one you set in that casino’s own account settings.