There is an appealing background to the Cambodia casinos that lie just over the dividing line from next door Thailand, where casino gaming is not allowed. Eight gambling dens are established in a generally small space in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling dens is in an excellent location, a three to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest gambling locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a huge business with Thai laborers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The astonishing income gained from the casinos ranges from $7.5 million to more than 12.5 million dollars, and there are a few controls constraints for gambling den ownership. Ownership is required to be mostly Thai; still, financing sources are cryptic. The borders are formally open from 0900 to 17:00, and even though visas are supposedly required to pass, there are methods around this, as is true of many border crossings.
The original Cambodia casinos opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving just one gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary ship casino, features 150 one armed bandits and sixty tables. The Naga casino is open all hours with 42 tables of mini-baccarat banque, four tables of vingt-et-un, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The 1st casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in 1999 and the Golden Crown quickly followed. There are 150 slot machine games and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights 300 slot machines and seventy tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and ninety six table games, including eighty seven baccarat chemin de fer (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slot machine games and 66 of the familiar gaming tables, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the 8 casinos in Poipet, again in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machine games and ninety seven games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in a comprehensive vacation and hotel complex that features a number of conveniences accompanying the gambling den, which contains 10,000 square feet of 130 slots and eighty eight tables.