There is a captivating background to the Cambodia casinos that sit just over the border from nearby Thailand, where casino gaming is not legal. Eight gambling halls are situated in a generally small space in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia casinos is in a prime spot, a three to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 most popular gaming locations in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a huge business with Thai laborers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The astonishing capital accrued from the gambling halls ranges from seven and a half million dollars to over 12.5 million, and there are a number of restrictions requirements for casino ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mostly Thai; still, funding sources are cryptic. The borders are ceremoniously open from 0900 to 1700, and though visas are apparently necessary to pass, there are means around this, as is true of most borders.
The first Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving only one casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored barge gambling den, highlights one hundred and fifty slots and sixty gaming tables. The Naga gambling den is open all day and night with forty two tables of mini-baccarat, 4 tables of blackjack, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in 1999 and the Golden Crown before long opened. A total of one hundred and fifty slots and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machines and sixty eight gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slot machine games and 70 gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slots and ninety six gaming tables, including 87 baccarat chemin de fer (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 one armed bandits and sixty six of the familiar gaming tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the 8 gambling dens in Poipet, again a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slots and 97 games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an all-around vacation and hotel complex that contains numerous amenities on top of the gambling hall, which houses 10,000 square feet of 130 slot machine games and eighty eight tables.