There is a fascinating background to the Cambodia gambling halls that lie just across the border from nearby Thailand, where gambling hall gambling is not allowed. Eight casinos are based in a generally small location in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia gambling dens is in an excellent location, a 3 to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two largest betting centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai laborers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The astonishing capital accrued from the casinos ranges from 7.5 million dollars to over 12.5 million, and there are a few limitations constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is required to be largely Thai; however, financing sources are vague. The borders are formally open from 09:00 to 5:00 p.m., and though visas are apparently necessary to cross, there are ways around this, as is real of many borders.
The 1st Cambodia gambling dens premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving just a single casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary bateau gambling hall, highlights 150 slots and sixty tables. The Naga river boat never closes with forty two tables of mini-punto banco, 4 tables of 21, 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, premiered in 1999 and the Golden Crown soon opened. A total of one hundred and fifty slots and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machines and sixty eight gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains 300 one armed bandits and 70 gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 one armed bandits and 96 table games, including eighty seven baccarat (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slots and sixty six of the familiar tables, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, again in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machines and 97 games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a multinational resort and hotel compound that features numerous luxuries accompanying the gambling den, which offers ten thousand sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and eighty eight gaming tables.
