There is an appealing background to the Cambodia gambling dens that lie just over the border from nearby Thailand, where gambling den betting is against the law. Eight gambling halls are established in a relatively small area in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia gambling dens is in a prime spot, a three to 4 hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the two largest betting centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a huge business with Thai blue-collar workers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The astonishing capital accrued from the gambling dens ranges from 7.5 million dollars to more than 12.5 million dollars, and there are a couple of controls constraints for casino ownership. Ownership is required to be mostly Thai; still, funding sources are cryptic. The borders are officially open from 0900 to 5:00 p.m., and though visas are allegedly required to cross, there are methods and means around this, as is real of most border crossings.
The initial Cambodia gambling dens opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in 1998, leaving just 1 gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored barge gambling den, highlights 150 slot machine games and sixty tables. The Naga gambling hall never closes with forty two tables of mini-punto banco, four tables of chemin de fer, ten of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly opened. A total of one hundred and fifty slot machine games and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machine games and 68 gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains 300 slot machines and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slots and ninety six table games, including 87 baccarat (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machine games and 66 of the normal gaming tables, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the 8 casinos in Poipet, again in 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 all-around vacation and hotel complex that contains a number of luxuries in addition to the gambling den, which offers ten thousand square feet of 130 slot machine games and eighty eight tables.