A discarded playing card lies on a street in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
Chinese Influx Stirs Resentment in Once-Sleepy Cambodian Resort
How the Belt and Road Initiative has helped turn a quiet resort town into a gambling hotspot
It’s against the law for Cambodians to gamble. Yet in Sihanoukville, a once-sleepy resort town where three dozen casinos have sprung up, most in the past two years, Cambodians are betting that an infusion of Chinese-built infrastructure will pay off with jobs and prosperity. So far, they’ve also won increased crime, higher housing costs and more than a little ethnic tension.
The casinos in Sihanoukville, a city named for a former king, cater to thousands of Chinese tourists and workers who have descended on this nub of land on Cambodia’s southern coast. At the Golden Sand Hotel’s casino near Ochheuteal Beach, businessmen from places like Shenyang peel $100 bills from thick wads of cash as they suck on Chunghwa cigarettes. Even on weekday nights, the place is packed and filled with smoke. Young Cambodian women in short, tight skirts stand behind tables dealing cards. Chinese security guards dressed in black circle the room.