Casinos rake in $2 billion
Thu, 1 October 2015 ppp
Sor Chandara
Cambodia's
casino industry generates close to $2 billion in revenue a year and
accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the Kingdom’s tourism revenue, a
central bank official said yesterday.
Chea Serey,
director-general of the National Bank of Cambodia, told a workshop on
statistics in international trade in services that Cambodia’s proportion
of casino revenue to total tourism receipts followed only that of Macau
and Monaco.
“I’m not talking about the absolute amount, but the relative proportions of casino income to total travel revenues,” she said.
Serey
added that the revenue figure took into consideration not only income
generated at gambling tables, but also other ancillary sectors across
the tourism spectrum.
“We mean tourists who come to casinos and
spend money [at casinos], hotels, restaurants and buying goods in the
market,” she said.
Cambodian law prohibits its nationals from
gambling in its casinos, Serey noted, adding that most gamblers entering
the Kingdom were from Vietnam, Thailand and China.
Ho
Vandy, an adviser to the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, expressed
surprise upon hearing the figure for the gaming sector’s contribution to
tourism revenue.
“I don’t know which institution provided that number, but if it’s 40 per cent, that’s a very big number,” he said.
He said in calculating a figure, the casino industry’s service chains must be factored in.
This
includes air transportation, accommodation, domestic transport, food
and restaurants, tourist site ticket sales, souvenir purchases and tour
guide services.
“All these services are in one package,” he said.
Cambodia
has about 60 casinos, mostly located along its borders. Tax receipts
from the gaming industry topped $25 million last year, according to
government numbers.
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