2025-03-23
19 分钟Sianoville is a city in Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand.
In the past decade or so,
it's changed from a weekend getaway on the coast to a city taken over by Chinese owned casinos.
The first time I visited,
I was struck by the number of unfinished buildings that hang over every street.
Skeletons that were supposed to be casinos but are now abandoned, except at night.
The upper floors in all of these abandoned buildings would have these fluorescent lights on all night long.
And I kept thinking, why?
Who was up there and what were they doing?
My name is Salaam Gabrakidan and I'm an investigative reporter for the New York Times.
I went to Cambodia for a story that had taken me all over Southeast Asia and Hong Kong,
where I'm based.
For months,
my colleague Joy Dong and I had been trying to understand how the criminal underworld works.
We'd gotten tips that the city of Sienaville, like many other casino hubs in that region,
had become a hotspot for scamming, money laundering, illegal gambling.
Especially after the pandemic, it took us a while to win over people's trust.
Then, in January, we got a break.
A number of criminals agreed to talk to us.
So we asked them about the lights that were on all night in those abandoned buildings in Sienaville.