The Kratie provincial police are hunting four Chinese men – reportedly chiefs of staff at Gold City Casino in Snuol district – for allegedly confining and torturing three Cambodian employees and extorting $15,000 from them.

The employees claimed to have earlier taken part in a scheme to steal from the casino by manipulating games and helping customers to win.

The Snoul district police station disclosed details of the case on March 12, explaining that the “incident” took place at the casino on March 10.

Officials revealed that an individual, identified only as “Kh.S”, filed a March 10 complaint, and reported that people had been detained and subjected to violence at Gold City Casino.

The district police immediately launched an investigation, in coordination with the International Border Gate at Trapeang Sre.

The authorities determined that three victims had been unlawfully confined by the Chinese nationals inside the establishment.

The three victims, including a woman, explained that prior to the incident, on March 4, a person identified as “Th.B” convinced them to participate in a scheme to manipulate casino games, with the goal of assisting customers in winning money from the casino.

The victims were promised a share of the winnings in exchange for their cooperation.

On March 7, Th. B. distributed the earnings, with each of the three victims receiving $800 as their share.

Immediately afterwards however, Th. B. left and failed to return to work.

“On March 10, the scheme was exposed to the casino management. Four Chinese nationals confronted the three victims at their rented homes, used violence against them, and then confined them inside the Gold City Casino administration office,” said a police statement.

After committing the crime, the four Chinese suspects fled the scene and remain at large. The district police are actively searching for them.