There is an interesting background to the Cambodia casinos that lie just over the border from nearby Thailand, where gambling hall gaming is not allowed. Eight gambling dens are based in a relatively small location in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling halls is in a prime spot, a three to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the two largest gambling locations in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a huge business with Thai laborers and guests from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The phenomenal income gained from the gambling dens ranges from seven and a half million dollars to over 12.5 million, and there are a number of restrictions constraints for gambling den ownership. Ownership is assumed to be largely Thai; however, funding sources are vague. The borders are ceremoniously open from 9:00 a.m. to 17:00, and despite the fact visas are supposedly necessary to cross, there are means around this, as is real of many borders.
The original Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in 1998, leaving just a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked bateau casino, highlights one hundred and fifty slot machine games and 60 table games. The Naga casino is open 24 hours with forty two tables of mini-baccarat, 4 tables of blackjack, 10 of roulette, 2 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 quickly followed. There are 150 one armed bandits and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four one armed bandits and 68 tables at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains three hundred slots and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machines and 96 table games, including eighty seven baccarat banque (the most beloved game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machine games and sixty six of the normal tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the eight casinos in Poipet, again in a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machines and 97 casino games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an international resort and hotel building that highlights numerous luxuries aside from the casino, which contains ten thousand square feet of 130 slots and eighty eight tables.