There is a fascinating background to the Cambodia casinos that sit just over the border from next door Thailand, where casino gaming is not legal. Eight gambling halls are based in a relatively tiny location in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia gambling dens is in a perfect location, a three to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 most popular gaming centers in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a thriving business with Thai laborers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The phenomenal income acquired from the casinos ranges from 7.5 million dollars to more than twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a couple of restrictions constraints for gambling den ownership. Ownership is presumed to be mainly Thai; still, financial sources are vague. The borders are formally open from 09:00 to 1700, and although visas are for all intents and purposes required to cross, there are means around this, as is accurate of most border crossings.
The original Cambodia gambling dens opened in Phnom Penh in 1994, 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 boat casino, highlights one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and 60 tables. The Naga gambling den is open all hours with 42 tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of twenty-one, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and 1 each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in 1999 and the Golden Crown before long opened. A total of one hundred and fifty slot machine games and five table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machines and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features 300 slots and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machines and 96 gaming tables, including 87 baccarat banque (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machines and sixty six of the familiar gaming tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, also in a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slots and 97 table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an international resort and hotel building that features many amenities on top of the gambling hall, which has 10,000 square feet of one hundred and thirty slots and eighty eight tables.