There is an appealing story to the Cambodia casinos that sit just over the border from neighboring Thailand, in which gambling hall betting is not allowed. Eight gambling dens are situated in a relatively small area in the metropolis of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia gambling halls is in a prime location, a 3 to 4 hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 largest gaming centers in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a thriving business with Thai blue-collar workers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very couple of Westerners. The astonishing income gained from the gambling halls ranges from $7.5 million to more than twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a couple of restrictions requirements for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mostly Thai; however, financial sources are ambiguous. The borders are ceremoniously open from 9:00 a.m. to 1700, and although visas are for all intents and purposes required to cross, there are methods around this, as is real of most borders.
The first Cambodia gambling halls opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in 1998, leaving just a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored bateau gambling den, contains 150 one armed bandits and sixty table games. The Naga river boat never closes with forty two tables of mini-baccarat, four tables of chemin de fer, 10 of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The initial gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly followed. There are one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and sixty eight tables at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains three hundred slot machine games and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slots and 96 table games, including eighty seven 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 normal tables, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the 8 gambling dens in Poipet, also in a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and ninety seven table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an international resort and hotel complex that contains a number of comforts aside from the gambling den, which offers 10,000 square feet of one hundred and thirty slots and 88 tables.