There is a fascinating story to the Cambodia gambling halls that sit just across the border from next door Thailand, where casino gambling is prohibited. Eight gambling dens are based in a generally tiny area in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia casinos is in a prime spot, a 3 to 4 hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 most popular betting centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a thriving business with Thai blue-collar workers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The astonishing income acquired from the casinos ranges from seven and a half million dollars to more than twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a few limitations constraints for gambling den ownership. Ownership is presumed to be mostly Thai; however, financing sources are vague. The borders are formally open from 9:00 a.m. to 1700, and although visas are supposedly required to cross, there are means around this, as is true of many border crossings.
The original Cambodia casinos opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in 1998, leaving just a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored barge casino, contains one hundred and fifty slots and 60 tables. The Naga casino is open all hours with forty two tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of chemin de fer, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in 1999 and the Golden Crown before long followed. A total of 150 slots and five table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slots and sixty eight tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains three hundred slot machine games and 70 tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and ninety six table games, including 87 baccarat banque (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slots and 66 of the common table games, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, again in a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and 97 table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an all-inclusive resort and hotel compound that highlights many amenities in addition to the gambling hall, which houses 10,000 square feet of 130 slot machine games and eighty eight tables.