There is an appealing story to the Cambodia casinos that sit just over the border from next door Thailand, where gambling den gaming is not legal. Eight gambling halls are based in a relatively tiny location in the metropolis of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia gambling dens is in a prime area, a 3 to four hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the two most popular gambling centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a huge business with Thai blue-collar workers and guests from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The phenomenal income accrued from the casinos ranges from seven and a half million dollars to over 12.5 million, and there are a number of controls constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is required to be mostly Thai; still, investment sources are cryptic. The borders are formally open from 0900 to 5:00 p.m., and though visas are apparently required to pass, there are methods around this, as is true of most border crossings.
The initial Cambodia casinos opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving only one gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored barge casino, contains 150 one armed bandits and 60 tables. The Naga gambling hall is open all day and night with forty two tables of mini-baccarat, 4 tables of vingt-et-un, 10 of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in 1999 and the Golden Crown soon followed. A total of 150 slot machine games and five tables at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and sixty eight gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slot machine games and 70 table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and ninety six table games, including 87 baccarat banque (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slot machine games and 66 of the common tables, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the eight casinos in Poipet, again a part of a hotel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and 97 table games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an all-around vacation and hotel building that contains many luxuries accompanying the gambling den, which offers 10,000 square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and 88 gaming tables.