Cambodia’s Sihanoukville Pays Price for Gambling Itself Away

Once a sleepy, entrancing seaside resort in southwest Cambodia, Sihanoukville is sleepy again, bereft of Chinese nationals and tourists who have left following the closure of dozens of casinos in the city. This was a result of a government ban on all online and arcade gambling operations in the kingdom, which came into effect in January. Fears of a coronavirus outbreak virtually completed the exodus, with reports of only 10 to 20 percent of Chinese nationals remaining, and few tourist arrivals from mainland China. Many Asian places are feeling the pain of being too China-dependent in current times, but Sihanoukville has taken the cake as probably the most wretched. Its problem isn’t overtourism but development that destroys its status as a tourism jewel, critics say. It also isn’t so much about China dependency as it is about China centricity that squeezes out locals and other nationalities. Named after former king and father of modern Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, Sihanoukv