Cambodia’s casino taxes increase

Cambodia’s casino taxes increase

According to official sources, during 2015  fewer people travelled from Vietnam to Cambodia to gamble, due to increased monitoring of cross-border gamblers by the Vietnamese authorities.

Cambodia.- The government of Cambodia reported that during 2015 taxes from the  country’s casino operators registered a 33 per cent increase over the previous year. The state has collected a total of US$34.7m.

The deputy director general of the Finance Ministry’s industry department, Ros Phearun was quoted attributing  the increase to a stronger nationwide tax collection strategy. In 2015, Phearun explained that the Cambodian government launched a strategy to boost its revenue “by improving the transparency, efficiency and equity of the tax system and monitoring tax collection more closely.”

Phearun also indicated that the official strategy helped the government collect more tax revenue from non-gaming sources within casinos, such as restaurants and nightclubs.

It was also informed that the Casino resort NagaWorld located in the capital Phnom Penh accounted for about 23 percent of all tax collection from casino operators in 2015. Phearun said that Cambodia’s government collected “much more [tax revenue] at NagaWorld from clubs, hotels, restaurants, karaoke and massage parlours, as they charge gamblers for these additional services.”