A new report highlights how gambling-related crime organizations are relocating to evade the authorities closing in on them.
Crime groups from East and Southeast Asia are expanding globally, despite renewed efforts from law enforcement to halt their operations. A new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) highlights how gambling-related criminal groups are moving around to evade the authorities and continue their unauthorized gambling activities, expanding beyond Asia to the rest of the world.
“We are seeing a global expansion of East and Southeast Asian organized crime groups,” Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC acting regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, told NEXT.io. “This reflects both a natural expansion as the industry grows and seeks new ways and places to do business, but also a hedging strategy against future risks should disruption continue and intensify in the region.”
While the crime groups were previously concentrated in across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and the Philippines, the report now reveals that crackdowns from local enforcement have moved them into purpose-built business parks, designed as bases for the syndicates to expand their online criminal activities.
“It spreads like a cancer.” Hoffmann continued. “Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate.
Where are the crime groups heading now?
Such operations have now been reported as far afield as Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific Islands, with related money laundering and human trafficking networks reaching Europe, North America, and South America. The illegal enterprises are backed by large profits and a multilingual workforce, some of whom are believed to be trafficked victims.
What’s more, advances in technology mean that these criminal groups are increasingly adept at cybercrime, expanding their money laundering networks and using AI-driven strategies to stay ahead of law enforcement.
The UNODC report recommends various practices that governments should use to combat these threats, including ramping up financial disruption measures, sharing financial intelligence across borders, and scaling up international collaboration between intelligence and law enforcement groups.
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