“All kinds of gambling shall be absolutely prohibited everywhere in the Kingdom of Cambodia, except when authorized by the government”, says Article 1 of the Law on the Prohibition of Gambling of 1996. This prohibition is after all not absolute, and the government had successively given licences to gambling and betting establishments to operate in the country.
That was before 24 February 2008 when Prime Minister Hun Sen all of a sudden reversed his governments decision and ordered the immediate closure of the football bookmaking establishment named Cambo Six. He subsequently ordered the closure of all other gambling and betting establishments across the country including Sporting Live Group, an internet-based sports gambling chain.
The reason given for the abrupt closure was to “make social reform, strengthen public order, and improve social morality” when gambling causes social disorder, domestic violence, theft and robbery”. There were no strong voices against this closure. Sporting Live Group “agreed to close their business in accordance with the government’s decision.” In a letter to Hun Sen, Cambo Six said it could “not immediately end the license” which was valid until 2011.
The Prime Minister’s orders were hurriedly and effectively executed. Within a week some 1000 outlets of the licensed gambling houses were shut.
The affected companies have badly suffered from the closure. Cambo Six alone said it had “substantial investment in the business and was making efforts to save it. Winning customers have also been affected s they may not get paid because of the sudden closure of the gambling houses. But those companies have some clout when dealing with the governments revocation of their licenses, and already there have been talk about the government making compensation to them.
However, the people who have most borne the brunt of the governments sudden decision and who do not have the same clout are the workers of all those closed businesses. It is estimated that there are between 6000 and 8000 of them whom have lost their jobs. They can do nothing other than to resign themselves to accepting the governments arbitrary decision.
Their immediate concern is understandably whether they could get their wages for February when the closure was ordered just several days before the end of the month. Their prospects of getting jobs are bleak when unemployment is already high and companies are laying-off workers due the impact of the worlds financial crisis.
The government must first ensure that those winners get paid and all those workers get their pay for February. But more importantly, it must assume all responsibilities and obligations of employers towards their employees under the Labour Law of 1997 when employers, with no grave fault on the part of employees, abruptly severe employment contract with them without any prior notification. It must meet all the rights of the workers of all the gambling and betting houses that it had ordered to close without any prior notification under this Labour Law.
Article 75 of this law requires that employers give notification of work contract severance a period of time in advance ranging from 7 days to 3 months depending on the lengths of employees’ work without interruption for employers. Failing to give such prior notification, according to Article 77 of the same law, employers must pay employees their full remuneration over the required notification period if employers wish to immediately severe the work contract.
Because it is responsible for ending their work, the government must pay the workers of all the closed gambling and betting houses their respective full remuneration they are entitled to under this provision of the Labour Law. On top of this remuneration, it must also pay them a compensation for their sudden loss of jobs which they are entitled to claim under Article 91 of the same law.
Apart from this remuneration and compensation, the government must provide those workers assistance to ease their hardships and also facilitate their search for employment. The granting of licenses was the governments doing. It has realized it was mistake and it suddenly revoked those licenses. It must therefore pay compensation to both the licensees and all their workers for its mistake.
