There is a fascinating story to the Cambodia gambling halls that sit just across the dividing line from neighboring Thailand, where gambling hall betting is banned. Eight gambling dens are established in a generally tiny area in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia casinos is in an excellent destination, a 3 to 4 hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 biggest gaming centers in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a thriving business with Thai blue-collar workers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The astonishing income acquired from the gambling halls ranges from seven and a half million dollars to more than 12.5 million dollars, and there are a couple of restrictions requirements for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is presumed to be mostly Thai; still, financial sources are vague. The borders are formally open from 0900 to 5:00 p.m., and even though visas are for all intents and purposes required to cross, there are methods and means around this, as is real of many borders.
The first Cambodia casinos premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in 1998, leaving just 1 gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored boat casino, features one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and sixty gaming tables. The Naga river boat never closes with forty two tables of mini-punto banco, 4 tables of blackjack, ten of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The initial gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly followed. There are 150 slot machine games and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and sixty eight gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains 300 slot machine games and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slots and 96 table games, including eighty seven baccarat chemin de fer (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slots and 66 of the normal gaming tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, again a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and ninety seven table games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an all-inclusive resort and hotel complex that highlights many luxuries aside from the gambling den, which contains 10,000 sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and eighty eight table games.
