There is a captivating story to the Cambodia casinos that sit just across the dividing line from neighboring Thailand, in which gambling hall gambling is prohibited. Eight casinos are situated in a generally tiny location in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This conclave of Cambodia gambling halls is in a perfect destination, a 3 to 4 hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest gaming centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a huge business with Thai blue-collar workers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The phenomenal capital acquired from the gambling dens ranges from seven and a half million dollars to over 12.5 million, and there are a few controls constraints for casino ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mainly Thai; however, funding sources are cryptic. The borders are ceremoniously open from 0900 to 17:00, and despite the fact visas are supposedly needed to cross, there are ways around this, as is accurate of many border crossings.
The original Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving only 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 never closes with forty two tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of twenty-one, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in 1999 and the Golden Crown soon followed. A total of one hundred and fifty slot machine games and five tables at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and 68 table games at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred one armed bandits and 70 table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machines and 96 table games, including 87 baccarat banque (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machines and 66 of the familiar table games, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, again a part of a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 one armed bandits and ninety seven casino games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an international resort and hotel compound that features a number of amenities in addition to the gambling hall, which provides ten thousand sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slot machines and 88 table games.