There is a captivating story to the Cambodia casinos that lie just over the border from neighboring Thailand, where gambling hall gambling is prohibited. Eight gambling halls are situated in a relatively tiny location in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia casinos is in a perfect area, a three to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 largest betting locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a thriving business with Thai laborers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The phenomenal income accrued from the gambling dens ranges from 7.5 million dollars to more than 12.5 million dollars, and there are a number of limitations constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is presumed to be largely Thai; however, investment sources are cryptic. The borders are officially open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and even though visas are for all intents and purposes needed to cross, there are ways around this, as is correct of most border crossings.
The initial Cambodia casinos opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in 1998, leaving only a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored barge gambling den, contains 150 one armed bandits and 60 table games. The Naga gambling hall never closes with 42 tables of mini-baccarat, 4 tables of 21, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and 1 each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The initial casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly opened. A total of 150 slot machine games and five tables at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and sixty eight tables at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slots and seventy tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slots and ninety six table games, including eighty seven baccarat banque (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 a single table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight gambling dens in Poipet, again in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machine games and 97 casino games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an international resort and hotel building that highlights many luxuries on top of the casino, which provides 10,000 square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and eighty eight table games.
