There is an appealing background to the Cambodia gambling halls that reside just over the border from nearby Thailand, where gambling den betting is against the law. Eight gambling dens are situated in a generally small area in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This conclave of Cambodia gambling halls is in an excellent spot, a 3 to 4 hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 biggest betting locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a thriving business with Thai laborers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The phenomenal capital accrued from the gambling dens ranges from seven and a half million dollars to more than twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a couple of restrictions constraints for gambling den ownership. Ownership is required to be largely Thai; however, funding sources are cryptic. The borders are officially open from 0900 to 5:00 p.m., and although visas are apparently needed to cross, there are ways around this, as is accurate of most border crossings.
The 1st Cambodia gambling halls opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in 1998, leaving just a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored barge casino, contains 150 slots and sixty table games. The Naga gambling den never closes with forty two tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of blackjack, ten of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and 1 each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The initial casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon opened. A total of 150 slots and five tables at the Golden Crown and 104 one armed bandits and 68 tables at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features 300 one armed bandits and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machines and 96 table games, including 87 baccarat chemin de fer (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machine games and 66 of the normal tables, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, also a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slots and 97 casino games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a multinational vacation and hotel complex that features a number of comforts on top of the gambling den, which has ten thousand sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slots and eighty eight tables.