BANGKOK: “Just one more spin. One more try and I’ll win.” That is what 37-year-old Myo Thant, a Myanmar citizen, tells himself every time he plays the jackpot on the illegal gambling app called ‘818 slots’, better known as the ‘Buffalo’ game because of its logo.
“I have never gambled on anything before. I didn’t even know how to bet on football matches,” the mobile phone repair shop owner in Myanmar tells The Straits Times.
But in June 2025, he found out about the app through his customers and has been hooked ever since. Players place bets on the game using e-wallet or crypto currencies.
Illegal online gambling has become “one of the most significant and fastest-growing dimensions of transnational organised crime” in South-east Asia and is increasingly targeting the young, said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a report released on July 21.
Left untackled, this illegal industry will not just push young victims into debt but also make them vulnerable to being recruited for illicit activities, including debt collection, money mule operations and scam centre work, the UNODC warned.
The online gambling industry has grown along with the proliferation of digital access, digital infrastructure and online payment technologies, it said in its report, “An Interconnected Criminal Ecosystem: Transnational Organised Crime Threat Assessment for South-East Asia”.
While countries focus on shutting casinos and scam compounds across South-East Asia, the UNODC observed that less attention is being paid to illegal online gambling.
Aside from a lack of strict enforcement, UNODC points to a lack of data which makes it difficult for the authorities to respond with appropriate regulatory policies.
“Clinical data remain far too sparse to capture the true scale of harm in the region,” it said.
Targeting the young
Young people have become a vulnerable segment targeted by organised crime groups.
Criminal syndicates push illegal gambling sites to youth through social media platforms and encrypted messaging apps like Instagram, TikTok, Telegram and LINE, said the UNODC.
They also make use of social media influencers, especially young women, to attract players and normalise online gambling, it said.
“The perceived authenticity and aspirational lifestyle projected by influencers makes their gambling promotions significantly more persuasive to young audiences than traditional advertising,” it added.
In addition, game elements such as reward systems borrowed from mainstream mobile gaming are blurring the line between gambling and entertainment, it said.
Mobile phone accessibility and the use of digital currencies also make it convenient for minors to download illegal gambling apps without any adult supervision or age restrictions.
Countries that are especially vulnerable
In countries with a high youth unemployment rate or low wages such as Myanmar, an opportunity to earn some money though illegal online gambling may prove too tempting.
About one in four Myanmar citizens aged between 15 and 35 is unemployed, according to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report released in October 2025. And for young people with jobs, UNDP said they earn 459,695 Myanmar Kyat (S$283) a month on average.
An independent Myanmar economist Thet Zaw said the country’s ongoing civil conflicts resulting from the 2021 coup have significantly reduced job opportunities.
When young people are bored and jobless, many turn to illegal gambling, hoping to get lucky, he added.
“Right now, on platforms like Telegram and TikTok, their (illegal online gambling) ads are heavily promoted. They offer big temptations to get the public to play,” says Thet Zaw.
Myo Thant has seen how addictive online gambling can be.
“People will come to my phone repair shop to deposit money or pawn their phones (to play) at odd hours of the night,” he recounted.
He has seen neighbouring business owners suffer huge gambling losses: one clothes alteration shopkeeper went bankrupt while another lost 10 million MMK in less than a month.
“They think it will solve all their difficulties and give them some relief from the current economic crisis,” he said.
Economist Thet Zaw said the young get distracted and lose the motivation to work once they get hooked on the gambling sites. “Once people catch the gambling addiction, their social lives break down, the national economy collapses,” he added.
Close link between scams and illegal online gambling
A close link exists between industrial scale scam operations and illegal online gambling, said the UNODC.
“Casinos, hotels, SEZs (special economic zones), and business parks across the region have become hubs for a booming illicit economy, with a single location frequently housing multiple tenants engaged in online gambling, cyber-enabled fraud, trafficking in persons, and money laundering simultaneously,” it said.
Scam operations in Asia-Pacific led to financial losses of up to US$114 billion (S$147 billion) in 2025, it said.
But the UNODC is unable to put a value on the monetary losses derived specifically from illegal online gambling due to undercounting and underreporting.
Illegal online gambling platforms in South-east Asia are often operated by and share the same financial networks of organised crime syndicates, it said.
“The platforms are designed not only to extract player funds, but to launder criminal proceeds, exploit victims of labour trafficking, and sustain the financial architecture of a broader criminal ecosystem,” it added.
Crackdowns against scams, illegal online gambling
Cambodia, an infamous hub for scam compounds, reported on July 25 that between July 2025 and June 30 2026, it raided 665 locations linked to online scam activities and referred 268 cases to court. The authorities also arrested 2,773 suspects related to scam operations.
In 2025, the Cambodian authorities examined 195 licensed casino locations, which led to the revocation of 19 casino permits and the suspension of the licences of 30 casinos over fraudulent activities using technology.
In Myanmar, the country’s eastern Shan state and its south-eastern Karen state border areas are also notorious for large-scale gambling and fraud operations.
On June 19, the Myanmar authorities claimed to have permanently cancelled over 100,000 suspicious SIM cards. State media reported that between January 2025 and April 2026, Myanmar authorities blocked access to 102 illegal online gambling websites and applications, through IP restrictions within the country.
The UNODC urges countries to step up cooperation efforts to tackle scam operations more holistically.
“Enforcement strategies that treat these as separate issues, addressing gambling operators, scam compound operators, and trafficking networks through distinct institutional silos, will continue to fall short of the integrated threat architecture they face,” it said.
But shopowner Myo Thant holds little hope that the Myanmar regime, responsible for staging the coup, will seriously dismantle illegal gambling operations.
He said: “As long as people are drowning in debt from gambling, their livelihoods uncertain, they’ll be too busy struggling just to feed themselves and survive to even think about revolting against the regime.” - The Straits Times/ANN
