Cybercrimes and the illicit financial flows in Myanmar

The rapid expansion of online gambling in Southeast Asia has created an alluring yet deceptive environment, promising financial gain while fostering fraudulent activities and illicit financial flows. This study explores the intersection of online fraudulent gambling and transnational organized crime in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Myanmar. Criminal syndicates exploit regulatory loopholes and weak enforcement to orchestrate scams, including rigged games, catfishing schemes, and human trafficking. The anonymity of digital platforms enables large-scale fraud, such as the "pig-butchering" scam, which inflicts severe financial and psychological harm on victims. Beyond individual losses, online scams fuel money laundering, economic destabilization, and corruption, while exacerbating social problems like addiction, debt, and family breakdown. Vulnerable groups, including the young, elderly, and low-income populations, are disproportionately affected, but even wealthy individuals from the West are targeted. Myanmar’s ongoing political instability has further enabled these illicit operations, allowing criminal networks to exploit weakened regulatory structures and facilitate money laundering linked to arms and resource smuggling. This research underscores the urgent need for national, regional, and global cooperation to strengthen regulatory frameworks, enhance enforcement mechanisms, and mitigate the growing threat of online gambling-related crime in Myanmar and Southeast Asia.