There is a captivating story to the Cambodia gambling dens that sit just across the border from neighboring Thailand, where gambling hall wagering is not legal. Eight gambling halls are established in a relatively small area in the metropolis of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia casinos is in an excellent location, a three to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the two most popular betting locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai blue-collar workers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The astonishing capital acquired from the gambling dens ranges from 7.5 million dollars to more than 12.5 million dollars, and there are a couple of restrictions constraints for gambling den ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mostly Thai; although, funding sources are cryptic. The borders are formally open from 09:00 to 17:00, and even though visas are supposedly necessary to cross, there are ways around this, as is accurate of most borders.
The first Cambodia gambling halls opened in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving just a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary barge gambling hall, contains one hundred and fifty slot machines and sixty tables. The Naga gambling hall is open 24 hours with forty two tables of mini-baccarat banque, 4 tables of chemin de fer, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The initial casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in 1999 and the Golden Crown soon followed. A total of one hundred and fifty slot machines and five table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slots and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights 300 slot machine games and 70 tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 one armed bandits and 96 gaming tables, including 87 baccarat (the most beloved 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 tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the 8 casinos in Poipet, also a part of a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slots and 97 games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an all-inclusive vacation and hotel complex that contains numerous luxuries accompanying the casino, which contains ten thousand sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty one armed bandits and eighty eight tables.