According to "The National", recently, the military in Chanthaburi, Thailand intercepted a group trying to illegally enter Cambodia to seek employment in casinos, including three Thai citizens and two Chinese men.
The group was traveling in a pickup truck along an unauthorized path next to the Pong Nam Ron canal, attempting to bypass border checks. The incident occurred on Sunday, and the military discovered the suspicious vehicle in the Ban Phaew area and intercepted it. Pakpoom, a 52-year-old local driver, admitted to charging each person 600 Thai Baht (approximately $18.20) to transport them into Cambodia for gambling-related work.
All individuals have now been handed over to the Chanthaburi Immigration Office, facing charges of illegal border crossing.
That same weekend, a similar incident occurred at the border in Sa Kaeo Province. Two Thai women, returning from gambling in Cambodia, chose an illegal route to enter the country to avoid checks and were arrested on the spot by security forces. It is preliminarily judged that they had participated in gambling activities in Cambodia and deliberately circumvented the official channels on their return.
These cases reveal that the "grey routes" along the Thai-Cambodian border remain active, with many individuals using illegal paths to travel back and forth to casino areas. Cambodia's relatively lax gambling environment continues to attract a large number of illegal workers and gamblers, while Thai authorities still face significant pressure in dealing with such cross-border gambling flows.
The Thai authorities have launched further investigations and continue to strengthen the supervision of border passages to curb illegal cross-border gambling activities.
