I'm sitting at a cafe that's directly across the river from a Chinese version of Las Vegas built in Northwest Laos. The city has it's own airport, but it's not near anything else in Laos.

This place is apparently one of several Chinese gambling hubs built just across the border from Thailand. The Chinese government cracked down on them a few years back and they turned into crime hubs for human trafficking and God knows what else. Many of the casinos were transformed into call centers where kidnapped people would be forced to scam people in their home countries.

This video has a great summary