There is an appealing background to the Cambodia gambling halls that sit just across the dividing line from next door Thailand, in which casino betting is illegal. Eight casinos are based in a generally tiny space in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia casinos is in a perfect spot, a three to 4 hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two most popular gaming locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a huge business with Thai workers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The astonishing capital gained from the casinos ranges from $7.5 million to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a number of controls requirements for casino ownership. Ownership is presumed to be largely Thai; still, financing sources are ambiguous. The borders are ceremoniously open from 0900 to 17:00, and even though visas are for all intents and purposes necessary to pass, there are means around this, as is true of most border crossings.
The 1st Cambodia casinos opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in 1998, leaving only 1 casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked boat casino, features 150 one armed bandits and 60 gaming tables. The Naga gambling den never closes with 42 tables of mini-baccarat, four tables of vingt-et-un, 10 of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in 1999 and the Golden Crown before long followed. There are one hundred and fifty slot machine games and five tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machines and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slot machine games and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slots and 96 gaming tables, including 87 baccarat (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 66 of the normal table games, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, also in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machines and ninety seven table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a multinational vacation and hotel compound that features a number of conveniences on top of the gambling den, which contains ten thousand square feet of one hundred and thirty slots and 88 table games.