[yhager]

> Cambodia's specifically 30-50% of the economy can be directly attributed to scamming plus casinos

Are you saying that 30-50% of Cambodia's economy can be directly attributed to scamming and casinos? I find that shocking and hard to believe. Do you have a source for that statement?

[PaywallBuster]

It's a small / under developed country

the economy is not that big to start with :)

GDP $49.8 Billion (nominal; 2025)

Some examples

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/cambodia...

[senordevnyc]

Formal estimates range from $12.5 to $19 billion dollars per year, equivalent to as much as 60% of the country’s formal GDP

Formal estimates by who? Given that the GDP is around $50B, these (unsourced) numbers don't even make sense.

[pyrale]

First off, the amount seized was not necessarily made in a year.

Second, most of the money would not make it to the Cambodian economy. It is likely laundered abroad. The whole operation is likely multinational, with only the workforce located in Cambodia.

[PaywallBuster]

Cambodia is also big player in money laundering

(not only for these cambodia originated crimes)

Also keep in mind all the bribes, all the money laundering mentioned in the article by the 100s of affiliated subsidiares of the criminal group all in Cambodia

the big casinos which directly and indirectly support additional laundering

https://www.fincen.gov/system/files/2025-10/Huione-Group-Fin...

https://www.kharon.com/brief/huione-group-cambodia-treasury-...

Every business has revenue / costs

The indictment mentions they were doing 30M/day ~ 10B / year, could be an old message when they were smaller

Guessing that's revenue

They're just one of many organizations in the "industry"

[hdseggbj]

You don't have to launder money when the leader of the country is involved.

[gordonhart]

My first experience stepping off the plane in Cambodia was being scammed by the official issuing visas. It was $20, I gave him $50, and he didn't want to give any change back. Scams were the defining part of the tourist experience there.

[newyankee]

Haha, it reminded me 20+ years back when I was a kid travelling by train in India where the ticket dispenser did not give me 8 Rs back on a 152 Rs ticket when I paid 160, sounds small but is a big deal for poor. Tangential but that is one thing I really thank digital payments and digitization of ticket dispensing for.

[vintermann]

It's not hard to believe that a small country can have a vastly oversized economy due to finance - legal or illegal.

[immibis]

An example of a legal one is the UK

[jandrese]

This thread is making Cambodia sound like an oversized Cayman Islands.

[anticodon]

Cambodia is a small country with no natural resources of any kind. Even to grow rice you need diesel for tractors and fertilizers that are produced from natural gas using energy (which Cambodia lacks).

There's very few opportunities for a small country without resources.

[SXX]

And to grow rice you need to somehow get rid of US bombs that majority of Cambodia soil is very well fertilized with.

Between 1965 and 1973 US dropped 2,756,941 tones of bombs on 113,717 sites in Cambidia. Thats more bombs than all allies together used in all of World War II.

Tens of people still getting killed by them every year.

https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabomb...

[reverendjames]

It's true. They have daily flights to Cambodia. Go there and look at it. It's all casinos and scams and dust.

[shkkmo]

The amount of bitcoin siezed here is about 30% of the Cambodia GDP...

[padjo]

Presumably they didn’t accumulate it all in one year?

[senordevnyc]

They don't have a source because it's total bullshit.