Cambodia's Gaming Tax Take Fell 25.8% to $28m in the First Half

Cambodia collected US$28 million in tax from casino gaming and gambling duties in the first half of 2026, down 25.8% year on year, according to Ministry of Economy and Finance figures cited by The Khmer Times.

The largest single contributor was NagaWorld, the NagaCorp-operated integrated resort in Phnom Penh, which had paid additional mandatory gaming tax following a 2024 audit. Despite the first-half fall, estimates put full-year commercial gaming revenue for the government at 117.7% of target as collection continues to improve.

NagaCorp's own numbers point to a market splitting in two. In unaudited first-quarter results, group gross gaming revenue rose 2.1% year on year to US$174.7 million and net gaming revenue rose 7.9% to US$160.0 million. Mass market table GGR was up 23.9% to US$91.3 million and mass market electronic gaming machine GGR up 8.4% to US$38.3 million. VIP went the other way: premium VIP GGR fell 16.2% to US$35.9 million and referral VIP GGR fell 52.4% to US$9.17 million.

That mix matters for the tax line, because Cambodia charges 7% on mass market GGR and 4% on VIP GGR. NagaCorp is due to report its first-half results after a board meeting on 24 August.

The wider drag is tourism. Visitor numbers have dropped on travel security concerns during the country's crackdown on scam centres, and authorities have promised to eliminate the operations entirely while running new campaigns to repair Cambodia's international image. Those scam networks are the same infrastructure the UN has tied to illegal online gambling across Southeast Asia, a link visible in the $3.3 billion ring South Korean police broke up this month.