There is an appealing story to the Cambodia gambling halls that reside just over the dividing line from next door Thailand, where casino betting is banned. Eight gambling halls are based in a generally small space in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia gambling dens is in an excellent destination, a 3 to four hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest betting centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai laborers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The phenomenal capital accrued from the casinos ranges from 7.5 million dollars to over 12.5 million, and there are a few controls requirements for gambling den ownership. Ownership is presumed to be mostly Thai; however, financial sources are vague. The borders are officially open from 9:00 a.m. to 17:00, and even though visas are supposedly needed to cross, there are methods and means around this, as is true of most borders.
The first Cambodia gambling dens opened in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were required to close in 1998, leaving just 1 gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked bateau gambling den, contains 150 slot machines and sixty gaming tables. The Naga gambling den is open all hours with forty two tables of mini-punto banco, 4 tables of blackjack, 10 of roulette, two 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. There are 150 slot machines and five tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slots and 68 table games at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights 300 one armed bandits and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machine games and ninety six table games, including eighty seven baccarat banque (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slots and sixty six of the normal tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight casinos in Poipet, again a part of a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machines and 97 casino games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a comprehensive vacation and hotel complex that contains many luxuries in addition to the gambling hall, which offers ten thousand square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and eighty eight gaming tables.
