There is a captivating history to the Cambodia gambling halls that sit just over the dividing line from next door Thailand, in which casino betting is not legal. Eight gambling dens are anchored in a relatively tiny area in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia gambling dens is in a perfect spot, a three to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 largest gambling centers in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a huge business with Thai laborers and guests from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The phenomenal capital gained from the gambling dens ranges from $7.5 million to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a few controls requirements for casino ownership. Ownership is required to be mostly Thai; still, investment sources are ambiguous. The borders are formally open from 09:00 to 17:00, and although visas are allegedly needed to cross, there are ways around this, as is real of many borders.
The original Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in 1998, leaving only 1 casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored barge casino, highlights one hundred and fifty slot machines and 60 tables. The Naga river boat is open all hours with forty two tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of vingt-et-un, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in 1999 and the Golden Crown before long opened. There are 150 slot machine games and five table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machines and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains three hundred slot machines and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slots and 96 gaming tables, including 87 punto banco (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slot machine games and sixty six of the familiar tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, also a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machines and 97 games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a multinational vacation and hotel compound that highlights a number of amenities on top of the gambling den, which offers 10,000 sq.ft. of 130 slot machines and eighty eight table games.