There is an appealing story to the Cambodia gambling halls that lie just across the border from neighboring Thailand, where casino betting is not legal. Eight gambling halls are based in a relatively small space in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia gambling halls is in a prime location, a 3 to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two largest gaming locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a thriving business with Thai workers and guests from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The astonishing income gained from the gambling halls ranges from seven and a half million dollars to more than 12.5 million dollars, and there are a number of controls constraints for casino ownership. Ownership is required to be mainly Thai; still, financial sources are ambiguous. The borders are ceremoniously open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and despite the fact visas are supposedly necessary to pass, there are methods around this, as is real of many border crossings.
The original Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving only 1 gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary barge gambling den, highlights one hundred and fifty slot machine games and sixty tables. The Naga gambling hall is open 24 hours with 42 tables of mini-baccarat banque, 4 tables of blackjack, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon opened. There are 150 one armed bandits and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machine games and sixty eight gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains three hundred slots and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machines and ninety six table games, including 87 punto banco (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slots and 66 of the familiar tables, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the eight casinos in Poipet, again in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machines and 97 casino games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a comprehensive resort and hotel building that contains a number of luxuries in addition to the gambling den, which houses 10,000 sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slot machines and 88 table games.