Authorities in the African nation of Eswatini have been left scrambling for a new court venue due to the size of an illegal gambling ring discovered in the country.
Over the course of the last month, 146 foreign nationals have been arrested by the Royal Eswatini Police Service after being accused of running an online gambling network and a fraud operation.
However, officials are now being forced to track down a new venue for the legal proceedings after initial hearings found that the Mbabane Magistrates’ Court was too small. According to reports from the Times of Eswatini, supporters of the accused were forced to stand outside, leading to the lead of the defence enquiring if a new venue would be found.
Principal Magistrate Fikile Nhlabatsi, who was fronting the proceedings, proposed that the trial be held in another courtroom in Eswatini with a larger capacity. She also suggested that the male and female accused be brought to the court separately.
Of the 146 arrested, the majority are from Asia – hailing from nations such as China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan. A small number of the suspects are also from Brazil.
In almost all cases, those arrested were found to have entered the country illegally, and it is believed the operations were targeting people outside of Eswatini.
During the raids, many of which took place in hotels dotted around Eswatini, the police discovered that rooms had been converted into makeshift call centres and workstations with computers and mobile devices.
In a trend seen across other locations used for scams, one hotel room appeared to have been designed to resemble a police station and was being used to convince victims they were in contact with legitimate law enforcement officials.
A concerning trend
Criminal proceedings in Eswatini indicate a significant expansion of scam operations that have become associated with casinos and are continuing to raise alarm bells, not just in Africa but specifically in Southeast Asia.
In particular, the government of Cambodia has been placed under significant pressure to address concerns that the country has become a hub of such operations, as the human rights charity Amnesty International accused lawmakers of ‘deliberately ignoring a litany of human rights abuses’ linked to compounds in the country.
A report published in June 2025 by the charity identified 53 scamming compounds, and over half were linked to casinos, as gangs often repurpose former casinos and hotels into centres for fraud.
More recently, Amnesty earmarked 12 casinos that the Cambodia Commercial Gambling Management Commission (CGMC) approved plans for between December 2025 and January 2026, explaining that such locations operated as scam compounds where alleged human rights abuses have been documented.
The trial of the 146 arrested in Eswatini will begin on 12 June.
