There is an interesting background to the Cambodia casinos that reside just across the dividing line from nearby Thailand, where gambling hall gaming is not permitted. Eight casinos are anchored in a relatively small location in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling halls is in a prime area, a 3 to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest wagering locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai laborers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The phenomenal income acquired from the gambling halls ranges from 7.5 million dollars to over 12.5 million, and there are a couple of restrictions constraints for gambling den ownership. Ownership is required to be mainly Thai; however, funding sources are cryptic. The borders are officially open from 0900 to 17:00, and even though visas are apparently needed to cross, there are methods around this, as is real of most border crossings.
The 1st Cambodia gambling dens opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, 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 ship gambling den, highlights 150 slot machines and 60 gaming tables. The Naga gambling hall is open all hours with forty two tables of mini-punto banco, four tables of 21, ten of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and 1 each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon followed. A total of one hundred and fifty slot machines and five table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machine games and 68 table games at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains three hundred slot machines and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machine games and ninety six gaming tables, including 87 baccarat chemin de fer (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machines and 66 of the common gaming tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, again in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 one armed bandits and ninety seven table games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an all-inclusive vacation and hotel complex that contains a number of comforts on top of the casino, which provides 10,000 sq.ft. of 130 slots and 88 table games.