There is an appealing background to the Cambodia gambling dens that sit just across the dividing line from neighboring Thailand, where casino wagering is illegal. Eight casinos are anchored in a relatively tiny space in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia gambling halls is in a prime destination, a three to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 biggest gambling centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a huge business with Thai laborers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The astonishing income acquired from the gambling dens ranges from 7.5 million dollars to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a couple of restrictions requirements for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is presumed to be mostly Thai; however, funding sources are ambiguous. The borders are ceremoniously open from 9:00 a.m. to 17:00, and although visas are supposedly necessary to cross, there are methods and means around this, as is real of many border crossings.
The 1st Cambodia casinos opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in 1998, leaving only a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked bateau casino, features 150 slot machines and sixty gaming tables. The Naga casino never closes with forty two tables of mini-baccarat, 4 tables of chemin de fer, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon followed. There are one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and five table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machine games and 68 gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights 300 slot machines and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machines and ninety six gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat banque (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 one armed bandits and 66 of the normal table games, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, also in a motel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machine games and ninety seven games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an international resort and hotel building that contains a number of conveniences on top of the gambling den, which provides ten thousand square feet of 130 one armed bandits and eighty eight tables.
