There is an interesting background to the Cambodia gambling halls that lie just over the border from next door Thailand, in which gambling hall wagering is not legal. Eight gambling dens are anchored in a generally small space in the metropolis of Poipet in Cambodia. This conclave of Cambodia casinos is in a prime destination, a 3 to 4 hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 biggest wagering locations in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a thriving business with Thai laborers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The phenomenal capital accrued from the casinos ranges from $7.5 million to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a number of controls constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is presumed to be mostly Thai; still, financing sources are ambiguous. The borders are formally open from 9:00 a.m. to 17:00, and although visas are supposedly required to cross, there are means around this, as is real of many borders.
The first Cambodia gambling halls opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving just a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored barge gambling den, highlights 150 slot machine games and sixty table games. The Naga river boat is open all hours with 42 tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, 4 tables of chemin de fer, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly opened. There are one hundred and fifty slots and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slots and 68 table games at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains 300 slot machine games and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slots and ninety six gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slots and 66 of the familiar tables, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the eight gambling dens in Poipet, again in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and ninety seven games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an all-around vacation and hotel compound that contains numerous conveniences on top of the gambling den, which offers ten thousand square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and 88 table games.