How a massive illegal gambling ring swamped a court in Southern Africa

(AsiaGameHub) –   Officials in the African country of Eswatini are rushing to secure an alternative court venue, as the scale of the illegal gambling syndicate uncovered in the nation far exceeded initial expectations.

Over the past month, the Royal Eswatini Police Service has arrested 146 foreign nationals, who stand accused of operating both an online gambling network and a fraudulent scheme.

However, authorities are now being pushed to find a new location for the legal proceedings, after preliminary hearings confirmed the Mbabane Magistrates’ Court does not have enough space. Per reports from the Times of Eswatini, supporters of the accused had to wait outside the building, which prompted the lead defense counsel to ask if an alternative venue would be arranged.

Principal Magistrate Fikile Nhlabatsi, who is presiding over the proceedings, proposed moving the trial to another higher-capacity courtroom elsewhere in Eswatini. She also put forward a suggestion that male and female defendants be brought to the court separately.

Most of the 146 arrested individuals are from Asia, originating from places including China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan. A small number of the suspects also come from Brazil.

Nearly all of the detained people were found to have entered Eswatini illegally, and the criminal operations are believed to have targeted victims based outside of the country.

During the raids, many of which were conducted at hotels scattered across Eswatini, police discovered that rooms had been transformed into temporary call centers and workstations fitted with computers and mobile devices.

In a pattern common to other scam operation sites, one hotel room had been designed to look like a police station, and was used to trick victims into believing they were communicating with legitimate law enforcement officials.

The ongoing criminal case in Eswatini points to a major expansion of casino-linked scam operations, which have continued to raise widespread concern across Southeast Asia.

In particular, the government of Cambodia is facing heavy pressure to address concerns that the country has become a hub for these types of operations, after human rights charity Amnesty International accused local lawmakers of “deliberately ignoring a long list of human rights abuses” tied to compounds in the nation.

A report released by the charity in June 2025 identified 53 scam compounds, more than half of which are connected to casinos, as criminal gangs often repurpose disused casinos and hotels into fraud operation centers.

More recently, Amnesty flagged 12 casinos that the Cambodia Commercial Gambling Management Commission (CGMC) granted approval to between December 2025 and January 2026, noting that these sites operate as scam compounds where alleged human rights abuses have been documented.

The trial of the 146 people arrested in Eswatini is scheduled to begin on 12 June.