There is an interesting background to the Cambodia gambling halls that sit just across the border from next door Thailand, where gambling den gaming is illegal. Eight casinos are based in a generally tiny area in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling dens is in an excellent location, a three to four hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the two most popular gaming centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai laborers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The amazing income accrued from the gambling halls ranges from $7.5 million to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a few limitations constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is required to be mostly Thai; although, funding sources are cryptic. The borders are formally open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and although visas are supposedly needed to cross, there are ways around this, as is true of many border crossings.
The original Cambodia casinos opened in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving just one casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored ship gambling hall, features one hundred and fifty slot machine games and 60 table games. The Naga gambling den never closes with 42 tables of mini-punto banco, 4 tables of chemin de fer, 10 of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and 1 each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly followed. There are 150 one armed bandits and five tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machines and sixty eight tables at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights 300 slots and seventy tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 one armed bandits and 96 table games, including eighty seven baccarat chemin de fer (the most beloved game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slots and sixty six of the common gaming tables, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the eight casinos in Poipet, again a part of 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 all-inclusive resort and hotel complex that features a number of amenities on top of the casino, which offers ten thousand square feet of one hundred and thirty one armed bandits and eighty eight tables.