Enforcement: How hard does the regulator enforce?

Laos's enforcement record shows an escalating pattern between 2018 and 2026 rather than a conventional licence-conditions regime. The United States Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the Golden Triangle SEZ concessionaire group, associated with Zhao Wei and the Kings Romans Group, a Transnational Criminal Organization on 30 January 2018, citing narcotics trafficking, money laundering, bribery, and human trafficking facilitated through the casino, a designation that remains unresolved. Lao authorities separately ordered all scam centers within the Golden Triangle SEZ to be completely shut down by 25 August 2024, and a raid in the same period resulted in 771 arrests of nationals from fifteen countries on suspected online fraud network activity. A follow-up inspection on 17 December 2025 covered 475 buildings across the SEZ and reported full compliance with the order suspending online-gaming operations. Most recently, on 28 August 2026, police raided two locations in Sikhottabong District in Vientiane Capital itself, arresting two suspects and seizing computers and SIM boxes linked to cybercrime and online gambling, extending enforcement activity beyond the SEZ footprint for the first time in the record.