There is an interesting background to the Cambodia casinos that reside just across the dividing line from next door Thailand, in which casino gaming is not legal. Eight gambling dens are based in a generally tiny location in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling dens is in a prime destination, a three to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest gaming locations in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a huge business with Thai blue-collar workers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The amazing capital accrued from the casinos ranges from $7.5 million to over 12.5 million, and there are a couple of controls requirements for gambling den ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mainly Thai; still, funding sources are vague. The borders are ceremoniously open from 0900 to 17:00, and although visas are for all intents and purposes necessary to pass, there are methods around this, as is true of many border crossings.
The 1st Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving just a single casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary barge gambling den, features 150 one armed bandits and 60 tables. The Naga river boat is open all day and night with forty two tables of mini-baccarat, four tables of twenty-one, 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, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown before long followed. A total of one hundred and fifty slots and five tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slots and 68 gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slot machines and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machines and ninety six table games, including 87 punto banco (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slots and sixty six of the familiar table games, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the 8 gambling dens in Poipet, again a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machine games and 97 games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an international resort and hotel building that contains a number of amenities in addition to the casino, which houses 10,000 sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slot machines and eighty eight table games.
