There is a fascinating background to the Cambodia casinos that sit just over the dividing line from neighboring Thailand, in which casino betting is not permitted. Eight casinos are established in a relatively small location in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling halls is in an excellent location, a three to four hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 largest gambling locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai laborers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very couple of Westerners. The astonishing income accrued from the casinos ranges from 7.5 million dollars to more than 12.5 million dollars, and there are a number of limitations constraints for casino ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mainly Thai; still, funding sources are cryptic. The borders are formally open from 09:00 to 17:00, and despite the fact visas are supposedly required to cross, there are ways around this, as is real of most border crossings.
The original Cambodia casinos premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in 1998, leaving only a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked ship gambling den, highlights 150 slot machine games and sixty gaming tables. The Naga gambling hall is open all day and night with 42 tables of mini-punto banco, four tables of 21, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in 1999 and the Golden Crown quickly opened. A total of 150 slot machines and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machines and 68 gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights three hundred slot machine games and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machine games and ninety six gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat chemin de fer (the most beloved game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slots and 66 of the familiar tables, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the 8 casinos in Poipet, again a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machines and ninety seven table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an international resort and hotel complex that contains numerous amenities aside from the gambling hall, which offers 10,000 square feet of 130 one armed bandits and 88 table games.