Down in Chrey Thum, inside the small casinos lining the border, the clatter of keyboards never stops. Chinese workers are harder to come by these days, but it hardly matters to the operators. Just across the river, Vietnam offers cheap, easy recruitment. Vietnamese hires have poured in, easily carrying half the business on their shoulders. The bosses no longer worry that losing Chinese staff in a raid will cripple their operations—the game on the street has already shifted.
Word is that high-level inspections are set for late September, but casino bosses aren't panicking. They’ve already figured out their exit plan. Out in a remote patch on village government land, they rented two warehouses. Around September 23, a dozen or so Chinese staff will be shifted into those warehouses to keep operating under the radar. As for the dozens of Vietnamese workers left behind in the casinos, they all hold valid passports and visas. When a tip-off comes ahead of a check, they will simply take half a day off, wait for the patrol trucks to roll past, and get right back to hitting their targets.
Raids do happen around here, but rounding up a few dozen workers every couple of months is clearly just for show. Before long, the companies pay to buy most of them back out, move them to another room, and set them back to work. Even officials quietly admit that the illicit trade on this land has never really stopped, shielded as it is by high-level political elites providing protection from above.
