There is a captivating story to the Cambodia casinos that lie just across the border from neighboring Thailand, in which casino betting is against the law. Eight gambling dens are anchored in a relatively tiny location in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia casinos is in a perfect location, a three to 4 hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest gambling locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai workers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The astonishing income accrued 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 constraints for casino ownership. Ownership is assumed to be largely Thai; still, investment sources are vague. The borders are formally open from 0900 to 1700, and although visas are apparently required to cross, there are means around this, as is accurate of many border crossings.
The 1st Cambodia gambling halls opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving only a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary boat casino, contains one hundred and fifty slot machine games and sixty table games. The Naga gambling hall never closes with 42 tables of mini-baccarat, four tables of vingt-et-un, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one 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 slot machine games and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machine games and 68 tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights 300 slot machine games and seventy gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slots and ninety six table games, including 87 punto banco (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slots and sixty six of the normal tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight casinos in Poipet, again in a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slots and ninety seven table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an all-inclusive vacation and hotel complex that contains many luxuries on top of the casino, which has 10,000 sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slots and eighty eight tables.