There is an interesting story to the Cambodia casinos that reside just over the border from nearby Thailand, in which casino wagering is prohibited. Eight gambling dens are based in a relatively small location in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia gambling dens is in a prime spot, a 3 to 4 hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 most popular betting centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a thriving business with Thai laborers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The astonishing income acquired from the gambling dens ranges from 7.5 million dollars to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a few controls requirements for gambling den ownership. Ownership is presumed to be mainly Thai; still, financial sources are vague. The borders are officially open from 09:00 to 1700, and though visas are supposedly needed to cross, there are methods and means around this, as is real of many borders.
The 1st Cambodia casinos opened in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving only a single casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked boat gambling den, features one hundred and fifty slot machines and 60 gaming tables. The Naga casino is open all hours with forty two tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, 4 tables of blackjack, ten of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly opened. There are 150 one armed bandits and five tables at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machine games and 68 table games at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights 300 slot machine games and 70 tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slots and 96 table games, including 87 baccarat chemin de fer (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slots and sixty six of the familiar gaming tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, also in a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and ninety seven games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in a multinational resort and hotel complex that contains many luxuries accompanying the gambling den, which has 10,000 square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and eighty eight gaming tables.