Timor-Leste becoming new hotspot for scam centres, UN warns
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has warned that Timor-Leste is emerging as a new target for organised crime groups, who are allegedly using foreign direct investment (FDI) as a cover to establish scam centres and illicit gaming operations.
UNODC’s findings warned about serious regulatory weaknesses in the Special Administrative Region of Oecusse-Ambeno (RAEOA), particularly within its Oecusse Digital Centre (ODC) free trade zone. According to the agency, criminal networks are exploiting these loopholes by presenting their ventures as legitimate business investments.
For the unaware, Scam centres are clandestine operations where workers, sometimes trafficked or coerced, use tech tools to run fraud schemes like fake investments or romance scams. Online casinos often promote these activities by providing cover, infrastructure, and cash flow routes that are used for money laundering and illicit gambling.
Report coincides with gaming push
This warning comes as Timor-Leste positions itself as an offshore gaming hub. The country recently allowed the licencing of offshore iGaming operators through the Timor-Leste Online Gaming Operator Supervisory (TOGOS) regime. Its first officially licenced operator, Golden River Universe (GRU), has been appointed to run offshore gaming activities under the supervision of the Inspectorate General of Gaming (IGJ).
Previously speaking to SiGMA News, GRU chief executive Datuk Harry Ng said Timor-Leste could become ‘Asia’s Malta’ by offering a friendly yet robust licencing regime. “With the Philippines clamping down and Cambodia greylisted, there’s no structured offshore gaming hub in Asia. TOGOS can fill that space—but keeping scenarios in mind, we’re taking it slow. We don’t want to scale too fast and lose control. The foundation needs to be clean and purpose-driven—so for us, it is not just about chasing volume,” he said.
Effect of Asia’s gambling crackdown?
Concerns are rising that the new regulatory module, making Timor-Leste attractive to new businesses, could also open the door to organised crime. The UNODC noted that this trend accelerated after the Philippines banned its Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs) in July 2024, resulting in the displacement of many operators.
During an October 2024 visit, Philippine Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla warned Timor-Leste officials that former POGO operators may relocate there. His concerns gained weight when Timorese authorities raided a hotel in RAEOA on 25 August 2025, seizing SIM cards and Starlink satellite devices commonly used in online scam centres across Southeast Asia.
Investigators are now determining whether workers found at the site were coerced victims or active participants, with some showing advanced IT skills. The UNODC stated that this reflects a worrying “professionalisation” within the region’s scam centre industry.
The hotel and related firms are reportedly tied to shell companies linked to gambling networks in Cambodia. UNODC found overlapping directorships between companies in Oecusse, Dili, and the ODC, suggesting hidden ownership chains. UNODC said several Timor-Leste-based entities have links to the 14K Triad led by ex-Macau gangster Wan Kuok-koi, known as “Broken Tooth”. These networks are connected to Cambodian casinos implicated in money laundering and online fraud, controlling multiple suspicious gambling domains.
The agency warned that such hubs often evolve into centres for cyber fraud, human trafficking and drug smuggling. It cautioned that the infiltration of organised crime can also undermine Timor-Leste’s digital systems and damage its global reputation as the country prepares to join ASEAN in October 2025.
