A Chinese man was killed on Saturday over a $3,000 debt at Bavet city’s Moc Bai casino, commune police said.
Chhin Cheang, acting Bavet commune police chief, said construction materials supplier Zhu Jun Sheng, 32, had killed casino resident Gong Jiangyong, 38, over a $3,000 debt.
Provincial and city police had investigated and found the debt was unpaid, Cheang said.
“Five of our officers went down there, but only two could get inside the compound,” the police chief added.
Provincial police chief Koeng Khorn and deputy Kuy Sopheap declined to comment. Provincial court spokesman Tep Phalla said the case was in the hands of prosecutors.
City police chief Em Sovannarith, however, denied there had been such a case.
The casino has five directors all originally from Myanmar. They have all been granted Cambodian citizenship, two in 2003 and the other three in 2019, according to government records. The company’s listed contact email and phone number matches a Facebook account, Wei Maly, which has also posted various photos with senior military general Kun Kim, as well as with military police commander Sao Sokha and the prime minister’s nephew Hun To.
The chairman of the board of directors, U Wang Young, has repeatedly donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Cambodian Red Cross, headed by the prime minister’s wife, according to governmental news articles.
Local media reports show a range of prior crimes at the Moc Bai facility, including 13 Vietnamese nationals found detained there in October due to debt owed to the casino. In April, a Vietnamese staff member was found to have died from fainting.
A raid in 2019 removed 53 Chinese nationals from the compound, according to Post News, with little further details. At least three incidents of violence were also reported between 2017 and 2019.
Other casino compounds in Bavet have also been the site of recent incidents, including a falling death at Crown, owned by Senator Kok An; a hanging death at Heng He, owned by an associate of Hun To; and the rescues of 22 Indonesian nationals from facilities in the border city last month.
