{"id":196064,"date":"2021-12-21T06:45:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T14:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=196064"},"modified":"2021-12-21T11:10:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T19:10:20","slug":"notorious-kings-romans-casino-laos-scamming-women-into-prostitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/notorious-kings-romans-casino-laos-scamming-women-into-prostitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings Romans Casino in Laos Scams Call Center Women into Prostitution: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young women who apply for call-center jobs selling shares for a notorious casino<\/a> in Laos\u2019 semi-lawless Golden Triangle are being trafficked into prostitution, according to Radio Free Asia.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"kings
Kings Romans owner Zhao Wei, above, has been sanctioned by the US government for running a \u201chorrendous \u2026 transnational criminal organization.\u201d (Image: On.cc)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The US-funded non-profit news service spoke to a Lao woman who escaped her situation. She told of \u201chundreds\u201d of women who were being duped into selling sex at the Kings Roman Casino.<\/p>\n

\n

In 2018, the US Treasury Department described the casino and the company that owns it, the Dok Ngiew Kham Group, as a \u201ctransnational criminal organization.\u201dAccording to the Treasury, the group engages in \u201chorrendous illicit activities, including human trafficking and child prostitution, drug trafficking, and wildlife trafficking,\u201d most of which is run through the casino.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Chinese owner Zhao Wei has been sanctioned by the US government. He is said to run the Golden Triangle SEZ like his own personal fiefdom.<\/p>\n

He has turned the zone into \u201ca lawless playground, catering to the desires of visiting Chinese gamblers and tourists,\u201d in the words of the Environmental Investigation Agency, a UK NGO.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tricked, Trafficked, Traded <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The young woman who recently escaped the casino told RFA she preferred to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. She was lured to the Golden Triangle from the Lao capital Vientiane by the promise of a job as a \u201cchat girl,\u201d selling shares in the casino to wealthy patrons.<\/p>\n

She said as part of the deal, she agreed to take on debt to finance her application and moving expenses. When she failed to meet impossibly high sales targets, she was told she would have to prostitute herself to pay off the debt.<\/p>\n

The call center women were required to find 100 people to buy shares, but most could only manage two sales per month.<\/p>\n

\n

However, the woman managed to contact authorities and was rescued before she had to sell herself. But most aren\u2019t so lucky, she said. She estimates \u201chundreds\u201d like her are being trafficked at the Kings Romans Casino and other Golden Triangle businesses. That’s because Laos has such high unemployment rates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Another woman who previously worked in the SEZ told RFA that not all women are selected for prostitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are traded, a pimp will first look at you,\u201d<\/strong> she said. \u201cIf you\u2019re beautiful and have light skin and are tall, they\u2019ll send you to provide sexual services. If you\u2019re not, you\u2019ll be traded to do other jobs like waiting tables and cleaning to pay your debt.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Narco Hotspot<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The SEZ was established in 2007 by the notoriously corrupt, nominally Communist Lao government with the help of Zhao\u2019s investment. \u00a0The latter is believed to own 80 percent of the SEZ to the government\u2019s 20 percent.<\/p>\n

\n

The Golden Triangle refers to the area where Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand meet, at the confluence of the Mekong and Ruak rivers. The term was coined by the CIA, a nod to its status in the late 20th<\/sup> century as the world\u2019s biggest heroin-producing region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

These days, thanks to the alleged efforts of triad supergroup Sam Gor<\/a>, it has largely pivoted towards the production of methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Young women who apply for call-center jobs selling shares for a notorious casino in Laos\u2019 semi-lawless Golden Triangle are being trafficked into prostitution, according to Radio Free Asia. The US-funded non-profit news service spoke to a Lao woman who escaped her situation. She told of \u201chundreds\u201d of women who were being duped into selling sex […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":196070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNotorious Kings Romans Casino, Laos Scamming Women into Prostitution<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Laos\u2019 Kings Romans Casino is tricking women who apply for call center jobs to work as prostitutes, according to a report by Radio Free Asia.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/notorious-kings-romans-casino-laos-scamming-women-into-prostitution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Notorious Kings Romans Casino, Laos Scamming Women into Prostitution\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Laos\u2019 Kings Romans Casino is tricking women who apply for call center jobs to work as prostitutes, according to a report by Radio Free Asia.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/notorious-kings-romans-casino-laos-scamming-women-into-prostitution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-21T14:45:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-21T19:10:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/zhao.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"806\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/notorious-kings-romans-casino-laos-scamming-women-into-prostitution\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/notorious-kings-romans-casino-laos-scamming-women-into-prostitution\/\",\"name\":\"Notorious Kings Romans Casino, Laos Scamming Women into Prostitution\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/notorious-kings-romans-casino-laos-scamming-women-into-prostitution\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/notorious-kings-romans-casino-laos-scamming-women-into-prostitution\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/zhao.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-21T14:45:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-21T19:10:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Laos\u2019 Kings Romans Casino is tricking women who apply for call center jobs to work as prostitutes, according to a report by Radio Free Asia.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/notorious-kings-romans-casino-laos-scamming-women-into-prostitution\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/notorious-kings-romans-casino-laos-scamming-women-into-prostitution\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/notorious-kings-romans-casino-laos-scamming-women-into-prostitution\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/zhao.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/zhao.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":806,\"caption\":\"Zhao Wei, notorious leader of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone has been designated as the leader of a \u201chorrendous\u201d transnational criminal organization by the US government. 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