There is a fascinating background to the Cambodia gambling dens that sit just across the dividing line from nearby Thailand, where casino gaming is not allowed. Eight gambling dens are established in a relatively small location in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This conclave of Cambodia casinos is in a prime location, a three to four hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 largest betting centers in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a thriving business with Thai blue-collar workers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The phenomenal income acquired from the gambling dens ranges from seven and a half million dollars to over twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a few controls requirements for gambling den ownership. Ownership is required to be mostly Thai; although, funding sources are cryptic. The borders are formally open from 9:00 a.m. to 17:00, and even though visas are supposedly needed to cross, there are ways around this, as is accurate of most borders.
The 1st Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving just 1 gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary bateau casino, contains one hundred and fifty slot machine games and 60 table games. The Naga gambling hall is open all day and night with forty two tables of mini-baccarat banque, 4 tables of blackjack, 10 of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown before long opened. A total of one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four one armed bandits and sixty eight tables at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slots and 70 table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and 96 gaming tables, including 87 punto banco (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 one armed bandits and sixty six of the common gaming tables, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the eight gambling dens in Poipet, again in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and 97 games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a multinational resort and hotel compound that highlights numerous conveniences on top of the gambling den, which has ten thousand square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machines and eighty eight table games.