There is a fascinating story to the Cambodia gambling halls that reside just across the dividing line from nearby Thailand, in which casino gaming is not permitted. Eight gambling halls are anchored in a generally tiny space in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia gambling dens is in a prime area, a three to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 biggest gaming centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai blue-collar workers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The amazing income gained from the gambling dens ranges from 7.5 million dollars to more than twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a few controls requirements for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is required to be largely Thai; still, funding sources are vague. The borders are formally open from 0900 to 5:00 p.m., and even though visas are apparently needed to pass, there are methods and means around this, as is real of most border crossings.
The 1st Cambodia casinos 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, a docked boat gambling hall, highlights one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and 60 gaming tables. The Naga gambling den is open all day and night with forty two tables of mini-baccarat banque, 4 tables of twenty-one, ten of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown before long followed. A total of 150 slots and five tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machine games and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred one armed bandits and 70 table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machine games and 96 gaming tables, including 87 punto banco (the most beloved game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slots and sixty six of the familiar gaming tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, also in a motel, is the Princess Casino with 166 one armed bandits and 97 games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an all-inclusive resort and hotel building that features numerous comforts accompanying the gambling hall, which houses 10,000 sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty one armed bandits and eighty eight table games.
