There is an interesting background to the Cambodia casinos that lie just over the border from neighboring Thailand, where gambling hall gambling is not permitted. Eight gambling dens are established in a relatively tiny location in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This conclave of Cambodia casinos is in an excellent area, a three to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two largest gaming centers in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a huge business with Thai laborers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The phenomenal capital acquired from the casinos ranges from 7.5 million dollars to more than twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a number of limitations constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is required to be mostly Thai; still, investment sources are cryptic. The borders are formally open from 09:00 to 17:00, and even though visas are allegedly necessary to pass, there are methods and means around this, as is real of most border crossings.
The initial Cambodia gambling dens opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in 1998, leaving only 1 gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored barge gambling den, contains 150 slots and 60 tables. The Naga gambling hall never closes with 42 tables of mini-baccarat, four tables of twenty-one, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and 1 each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly opened. There are one hundred and fifty slots and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machine games and 68 table games at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights 300 slots and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slots and 96 gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat banque (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 one armed bandits and sixty six of the familiar tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the 8 gambling dens in Poipet, again a part of a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machines and ninety seven games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an all-inclusive vacation and hotel building that features a number of conveniences accompanying the gambling hall, which provides ten thousand square feet of 130 slot machine games and 88 gaming tables.