'Las Vegas in Laos': the riverside city awash with crime

This photo taken on May 26, 2025 shows a Rolls-Royce vehicle parked in front of the main entrance to the Kings Romans casino inside the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone along the Mekong river in the Bokeo province of Laos. Rising from the muddy fields on the Mekong riverbank in Laos, a lotus tops a casino in a sprawling city which analysts decry as a centre for cybercrime. - AFP

VAN PAK LEN, Laos: Rising from the muddy fields on the Mekong riverbank in Laos, a lotus tops a casino in a sprawling city which analysts decry as a centre for cybercrime.

Shabby, mismatched facades - including an Iberian-style plaza replete with a church tower, turrets and statues - stand alongside high-rise shells.