There is an interesting history to the Cambodia gambling halls that sit just over the border from nearby Thailand, where gambling hall betting is prohibited. Eight gambling halls are established in a relatively tiny area in the metropolis of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia casinos is in an excellent area, a 3 to 4 hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two largest betting locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai workers and guests from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The phenomenal income gained from the gambling halls ranges from $7.5 million to over twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a few restrictions requirements for casino ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mostly Thai; still, financing sources are vague. The borders are formally open from 0900 to 17:00, and though visas are apparently needed to cross, there are methods and means around this, as is real of most borders.
The first Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in 1998, leaving only a single gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked barge gambling den, features one hundred and fifty slot machine games and 60 gaming tables. The Naga gambling den never closes with forty two tables of mini-baccarat banque, four tables of blackjack, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown before long opened. There are one hundred and fifty slot machine games and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and 104 one armed bandits and 68 gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features 300 slot machine games and 70 gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machines and ninety six gaming tables, including 87 baccarat chemin de fer (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five one armed bandits and sixty six of the normal tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, again a part of 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 resort and hotel complex that features a number of luxuries accompanying the gambling den, which provides 10,000 sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slots and 88 tables.