Comprehensive Overview of Korean Organized Crime in the Kingdom of Cambodia: Casinos, Voice Phishing, and Avatar Gambling Form a Criminal Ecosystem

[Financial News] The large-scale criminal complex that has emerged in the Kingdom of Cambodia is exposing the reality of overseas activities by Korean organized crime groups.
Over the past decade, Korean gangs have expanded into the region, establishing a criminal ecosystem involving casinos, prostitution, and online fraud. Experts point out that domestic networks must be eradicated first.
According to Yonhap News on the 30th, major Korean crime groups active in the Kingdom of Cambodia include Sillim Eaglespa and Yeongdeungpo-pa from Seoul, Anyang Tiger Faction, Gunsan Baekhakgwan Faction, Yeongsan-pa of Naju, Hyangchon Gupa from Daegu, and Pohang Savoy-pa. These groups are known to have generated significant profits by operating casino gambling venues and prostitution businesses.
Many of these groups are said to be successors of Beomseobangpa, once led by the late Kim Tae-chon and considered one of the three major organizations in Korea during the 1980s and 1990s. According to insiders, after members from Honam made large sums of money in the Kingdom of Cambodia in the early to mid-2010s, organizations from other regions quickly followed.
Stricter domestic crackdowns and intensified turf wars also fueled the move to the Kingdom of Cambodia. In the case of Pohang Savoy-pa, when a violent conflict with a rival group erupted in 2017, many members relocated to the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Initially, Korean crime groups were scattered across Southeast Asia, dividing their spheres of influence among Macau, the Philippines, Vietnam, and other countries. However, a crackdown on overseas gambling by prosecutors in 2015 destabilized some groups, prompting a shift toward the Kingdom of Cambodia’s casino market, which offers lower tax rates.
A Korean expatriate said, “There are over 120 licensed casinos in Sihanoukville alone. There have even been cases where Koreans, unable to pay their gambling debts, have requested rescue after being detained.” He added, “These days, it is common for an entire floor of a building to be leased to a specific country’s organization to operate an Avatar Casino.”
An Avatar Casino is a form of online remote gambling where domestic users place bets through a proxy shown in a live broadcast from a local casino. In fact, dozens of live streams related to ‘Kingdom of Cambodia casinos’ are broadcast simultaneously on platforms such as YouTube.
By the mid-2020s, a new generation of gangsters, known as the MZ Gangsters, began moving to the Kingdom of Cambodia in earnest. Rather than identifying with a specific faction as in the past, they have evolved to collaborate with Chinese crime organizations, participating in voice phishing (vishing), romance scams, and the distribution of daepo bank accounts.
Meanwhile, Korean police have recently identified a man in his 30s, a former gangster, as the ringleader of a large-scale scam organization in the Kingdom of Cambodia and are currently investigating. The damages related to this case are estimated at around 12 billion won, with more than 20 Korean organized crime members reportedly involved as accomplices.
Locally, there are growing calls to sever all ties between Cambodian criminal organizations and Korean gangsters in light of this incident.
Lee Man-jong, an honorary professor at Howon University, stated, “This is a complex crime pattern, raising suspicions of collusion between domestic intermediaries, financial flows, and local authorities. The government must take extraordinary measures to thoroughly investigate domestic networks first.”

jjw@fnnews.com Jung Ji-woo Reporter