There is an appealing story to the Cambodia casinos that lie just across the border from neighboring Thailand, where casino gambling is not legal. Eight gambling halls are situated in a generally small space in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This conclave of Cambodia gambling dens is in a prime destination, a three to four hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the two largest betting locations in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a huge 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 casinos ranges from 7.5 million dollars to over 12.5 million, and there are a couple of restrictions constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mostly Thai; still, funding sources are vague. The borders are formally open from 0900 to 1700, and even though visas are supposedly necessary to pass, there are methods around this, as is true of most borders.
The 1st Cambodia gambling halls opened in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving only 1 gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary barge gambling den, contains 150 slot machine games and 60 tables. The Naga gambling hall never closes with forty two tables of mini-punto banco, 4 tables of vingt-et-un, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The initial gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon followed. A total of one hundred and fifty slot machine games and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machines and 68 table games at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains 300 slot machine games and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and ninety six table games, including eighty seven punto banco (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machines and sixty six of the normal gaming tables, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, also in a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and ninety seven casino games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in a comprehensive resort and hotel complex that features many amenities on top of the casino, which has 10,000 square feet of 130 slot machine games and eighty eight tables.