Cambodia’s 1H duties from casinos and gambling down 26pct y-o-y to US$28mln: report

First-half Cambodian state revenues derived from duties on casino gaming and gambling fell by 25.8 percent year-on-year to circa US$28 million, reported on Thursday the Khmer Times, citing information from the country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance. The news outlet said the information was in a Wednesday update from the ministry on the implementation of the country’s budget, covering the six months to June 30. The largest portion of revenue from gaming was said to have been derived from NagaWorld, a casino resort with monopoly rights for the capital Phnom Penh, run by Hong Kong-listed NagaCorp Ltd. The casino firm is yet to issue its first-half results. In March, NagaCorp reported a 2025 profit of circa US$310 million, and declared a final dividend. Its full-year 2025 report, issued at the end of April this year, showed that NagaCorp paid just over US$43.7 million in gaming tax for the whole of 2025 on total gross gaming revenue of slightly above US$691.6 million. The firm additionally paid US$723,000 in income tax for 2025. News of the fall in the Cambodian government’s 2026 fiscal first-half revenues from gambling comes amid news that 72 Cambodian casinos had shut in recent months, amid a crackdown on scam centres. Even with the decline, full-year 2026 tax revenues from gambling are expected to hit roughly 117.7 percent of the Cambodian government’s annual target, driven by stricter collection controls on casino games, reported the Khmer Times. The newspaper did not state the annual-target amount. China’s Xinhua news agency and a number of Cambodian outlets reported on Wednesday that the Ministry of Economy and Finance had further downgraded Cambodia’s 2026 gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 4.1 percent, from a 4.2 percent projection in May, and an initial estimate of 5 percent. Per the mid-year review, the economic slowdown stemmed from rising fuel prices driven by conflicts in the Middle East; Cambodia’s border dispute with Thailand; and the persistent impact of issues related to online scam activities within Cambodia.