There is a captivating story to the Cambodia casinos that lie just over the border from neighboring Thailand, in which casino wagering is not legal. Eight gambling halls are situated in a generally small area in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia gambling halls is in a prime spot, a 3 to 4 hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two largest gambling centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a huge business with Thai blue-collar workers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The phenomenal capital acquired from the gambling dens ranges from seven and a half million dollars to more than 12.5 million dollars, and there are a few controls requirements for gambling den ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mainly Thai; however, financing sources are ambiguous. The borders are ceremoniously open from 0900 to 1700, and though visas are allegedly required to cross, there are methods around this, as is true of most border crossings.
The first Cambodia gambling dens opened in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were forced to close in 1998, leaving only a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary ship casino, features one hundred and fifty slots and 60 gaming tables. The Naga gambling hall is open all day and night with forty two tables of mini-baccarat banque, four tables of vingt-et-un, 10 of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon opened. There are one hundred and fifty slot machine games and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and 68 table games at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights three hundred slot machines and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 one armed bandits and 96 table games, including eighty seven baccarat banque (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slots and sixty six of the normal tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight gambling dens in Poipet, also in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 one armed bandits and ninety seven casino games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a multinational vacation and hotel compound that contains numerous amenities on top of the gambling hall, which contains 10,000 square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machines and eighty eight tables.