In Cambodia, especially in Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh, a "text message battle" for user attention is quietly unfolding. As gambling operators must admit: this is a fiercely competitive, information-overloaded market, and whoever controls the traffic, controls the business initiative.
To reach potential users, text message marketing is a standard strategy. These messages often contain keywords such as "register for gold," "fast withdrawal," and "VIP rebate," with a clear purpose—to attract interested users to click and register. The areas around casinos and densely populated Chinese-funded enterprises are precisely where the gambling audience is most concentrated, naturally becoming the focus of deployment.
Some users say they delete dozens of messages a day, but at the operational level, this intensive deployment is actually a series of "precision hunts"—not random mass sending, but based on finely modeled user behavior.
The technical team analyzes whether users have used gambling apps, browsed related pages, or connected to gambling hotspot WiFi. These clues are enough to build user profiles, thereby achieving targeted marketing.
This practice often involves cross-border technical cooperation, using international SMS channels, and sometimes combined with "pseudo base station" technology for efficient coverage, reaching the target audience within a limited area at low cost and quick conversion.
Of course, some question this method as "invading privacy" and "polluting the information environment." But in a market lacking systematic regulation, efficiency is the rule of survival, and it is necessary to capture user attention in the fastest way and at the lowest cost. Many small and medium-sized operators even achieve ultra-low-cost deployment by purchasing black market data packets or browsing records.
As for whether the links contain malicious programs, most legitimate gambling platforms have no intention of "implanting Trojans," but it is the behavior of individual technical teams or agency intermediaries that is out of control, giving the entire industry a bad impression.
Currently, some regions have raised questions about "pseudo base station" equipment, considering its hijacking capabilities. This indeed exists in a gray area, but such devices are deployed in hotels, rental houses, and even vehicles with the core purpose of improving SMS delivery rates, not "invasion."
Facing growing public pressure and calls for regulation, gambling is a service with legitimate demand and huge market potential, but the current regulatory mechanisms are still not robust, and the mode of information transmission is still in a "barbaric growth phase."
Information bombardment is not the ultimate goal—the real aim is to see users voluntarily stay, which is what every gambling operator most wants to see.
