There is an interesting background to the Cambodia casinos that sit just over the border from neighboring Thailand, in which gambling hall gaming is not allowed. Eight gambling halls are based in a generally tiny location in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling halls is in an excellent location, a three to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest gaming centers in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a huge business with Thai blue-collar workers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The astonishing capital gained from the gambling dens ranges from 7.5 million dollars to more than 12.5 million dollars, and there are a number of restrictions constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is required to be mainly Thai; however, funding sources are ambiguous. The borders are officially open from 9:00 a.m. to 1700, and although visas are apparently needed to pass, there are methods around this, as is true of many border crossings.
The first Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were required to close in 1998, leaving just one gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored ship casino, features one hundred and fifty slot machine games and sixty table games. The Naga gambling den never closes with 42 tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of chemin de fer, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly opened. A total of 150 slot machine games and five tables at the Golden Crown and 104 one armed bandits and sixty eight tables at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights three hundred slots and 70 tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machines and 96 gaming tables, including eighty seven punto banco (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slots and 66 of the normal tables, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, also a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machines and 97 table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a multinational vacation and hotel complex that highlights many luxuries accompanying the gambling den, which provides 10,000 sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slots and eighty eight table games.