There is an appealing background to the Cambodia gambling dens that sit just over the border from nearby Thailand, where casino gambling is banned. Eight casinos are anchored in a generally small location in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling halls is in an excellent spot, a 3 to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest gaming centers in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a thriving business with Thai workers and guests from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The amazing capital accrued from the casinos ranges from $7.5 million to more than 12.5 million, and there are a couple of restrictions constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is required to be mainly Thai; although, investment sources are cryptic. The borders are formally open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and even though visas are supposedly necessary to pass, there are methods around this, as is true of many border crossings.
The 1st Cambodia gambling halls opened in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving just a single gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored barge gambling den, features 150 slots and 60 table games. The Naga casino never closes with 42 tables of mini-punto banco, 4 tables of twenty-one, 10 of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and 1 each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon followed. There are 150 slots and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machine games and 68 gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights 300 slot machines and seventy tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and 96 gaming tables, including 87 punto banco (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slot machines and 66 of the common tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, also a part of a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machine games and ninety seven games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an all-inclusive resort and hotel compound that features numerous comforts on top of the gambling den, which has ten thousand sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty one armed bandits and eighty eight table games.