There is a fascinating background to the Cambodia casinos that reside just across the border from neighboring Thailand, where gambling hall wagering is banned. Eight gambling dens are based in a relatively tiny space in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia casinos is in an excellent location, a three to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest gaming locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a huge business with Thai blue-collar workers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The astonishing income acquired from the casinos ranges from $7.5 million to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a couple of controls constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mainly Thai; however, funding sources are ambiguous. The borders are formally open from 9:00 a.m. to 1700, and although visas are allegedly required to cross, there are methods and means around this, as is correct of most borders.
The 1st Cambodia gambling dens premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving only a single gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored barge casino, highlights one hundred and fifty slots and sixty table games. The Naga gambling hall never closes with forty two tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, 4 tables of twenty-one, 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 the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly opened. A total of 150 slot machine games and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machines and sixty eight gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights 300 slot machine games and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machine games and 96 gaming tables, 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 sixty six of the common gaming tables, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the 8 casinos in Poipet, also a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slots and 97 table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an international resort and hotel compound that highlights numerous amenities on top of the casino, which provides ten thousand sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty one armed bandits and 88 gaming tables.
