There is an appealing history to the Cambodia gambling halls that lie just over the border from nearby Thailand, where casino gambling is against the law. Eight casinos are based in a generally small area in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling halls is in a perfect location, a three to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 largest betting locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a huge business with Thai laborers and guests from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The phenomenal capital accrued from the casinos ranges from seven and a half million dollars to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a couple of controls constraints for gambling den ownership. Ownership is assumed to be largely Thai; still, financial sources are ambiguous. The borders are ceremoniously open from 09:00 to 5:00 p.m., and even though visas are supposedly required to pass, there are methods around this, as is true of most border crossings.
The initial Cambodia gambling halls opened in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were forced to close in 1998, leaving just 1 gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked ship gambling den, features 150 slots and sixty tables. The Naga gambling hall never closes with 42 tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of blackjack, 10 of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The initial casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon followed. A total of one hundred and fifty slot machines and five tables at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and sixty eight gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features 300 one armed bandits and 70 table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machine games and 96 table games, including eighty seven baccarat (the most beloved game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slots and 66 of the familiar table games, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, also in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slots and ninety seven table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a comprehensive resort and hotel compound that features numerous comforts aside from the gambling hall, which houses 10,000 square feet of 130 slot machine games and eighty eight tables.