Nusantara Restaurants Flag Indonesian Online Gambling Workers in Cambodia

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Hundreds of young Indonesians working at online gambling sites reside around the Trimulia Soho building in the city of Sihanoukville, Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia. Not only workers, Indonesian restaurants are scattered across the office complex, serving a variety of Indonesian dishes.

Quoting Tempo’s report titled “The Exlusive Settlements of Gambling Operators,” an Indonesian citizen named Teddy - not his real name - said that he used to work at an online gambling site office located in Trimulia.

The row of restaurants in the Trimulia Complex offers Indonesian specialties such as Aceh noodles, chicken soup, fried chicken, meatballs and cilok (tapioca flour snack). Near the ground floor elevator, there are even announcements in Indonesian instructing workers to exchange their identity cards if they do not have access to the building.

Teddy's former boarding house, located about 3 kilometers from Trimulia, has also turned into something akin to an Indonesian settlement, featuring a Padang restaurant and traditional snacks from various regions in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, since 2023, Teddy has been working as a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist in an online gambling company. He was responsible for ensuring that his gambling site was always ranked high on the Google search engine. His other task was to prepare backup domain names for the site in case the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Digital shuts it down. 

"That's why gambling websites will never be completely shut down," he said.

Tempo also spoke with a man from Bekasi, West Java. He has been working for a year at an online gambling site office located in the Kompong Dewa complex, Sihanoukville, Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia.

There, he is employed as a customer relationship marketing officer at an online gambling company that manages dozens of sites. For his work, he earns Rp18 million per month. Meanwhile, two women from Manado who also work in the marketing department earn Rp10 million per month. "Because we’re still new,” one of the women said.

Kompong Dewa seems more exclusive compared to Trimulia. While Trimulia is in an urban area, the Kompong Dewa complex is surrounded by vacant land. Foreigners are not allowed to enter without a membership card. Inside, there is Hotel Herloom, part of the JHL Collection owned by Jerry Hermawan Lo in Indonesia.

There is also the Rama apartment. Tempo tried to book a room there, but was declined. They don't want to accept guests who are not members of the Kompong Dewa club. The casino only allows registered members to gamble.

Moreover, in the area of Kompong Dewa Casino and Resort, there are many new cars with codes written in the Indonesian language. Some of them bear names like "Tim Kuda," "Hoki," "Pasukan," and "Keluarga." These names are similar to online gambling sites that have recently flooded the country.

Read More: The Exlusive Settlements of Gambling Operators 

Ahmad Faiz Ibnu Sani and Fajar Pebrianto contributed to the writing of this article.

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