[willbw]

I think you might be imposing an America-centric view on the BBC. I doubt that was the intention.

[GuB-42]

I am not British, I am French, and when I think about a city with casinos, that's definitely Las Vegas, and I think that it would be even more true for the British, who have more ties to the US than the French.

And yes, more Las Vegas than Monaco, even though it is a 2 hour drive from where I live. Monaco is not famous for casinos (plural), it is famous for one particular casino, that is the Monte-Carlo casino.

And if they specified Asia, Macao would have popped up in my mind. As for the "fraud" part, casinos and fraud go well together, at least in popular culture. Which is a bit ironic considering that apparently, the scam businesses took over as casinos closed down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[alephnerd]

> And if they specified Asia, Macao would have popped up in my mind

The Xi Admin cracked down on Macau around the 2016-18 period as part of the larger crackdown.

It was during this time that most of the gambling (in reality money laundering) operations moved abroad to Phillipines, Cambodia, Myanmar, etc.

[selimthegrim]

Koh Kong also comes to mind.

[redeux]

That’s fair, which is why I questioned whether that was the case rather than outright making the claim. You’re probably right.

[lupusreal]

It does describe Las Vegas perfectly, and I sincerely doubt your first thought after reading that headline was "its a British publication, so of course they mean that city in Myanmar."

[Muromec]

I did, because I also followed the Chinese actor kidnapping story from the Thai publications and know about the magical place across the river and it's history. South East Asia is historically fascinating. It's worth reading Burman diaries to put later writings of Orwell into some context.