There is an appealing background to the Cambodia gambling halls that sit just over the border from neighboring Thailand, in which gambling den gaming is illegal. Eight gambling halls are situated in a generally small location in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This conclave of Cambodia casinos is in a prime location, a 3 to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two most popular betting centers in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a huge business with Thai laborers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The phenomenal income gained from the gambling dens ranges from $7.5 million to over 12.5 million, and there are a number of restrictions requirements for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is required to be mainly Thai; still, financing sources are ambiguous. The borders are formally open from 09:00 to 17:00, and despite the fact visas are apparently required to pass, there are ways around this, as is true of many border crossings.
The initial Cambodia casinos premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving just 1 gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored boat gambling den, features 150 slot machine games and 60 tables. The Naga gambling den is open all hours with forty two tables of mini-baccarat banque, four tables of chemin de fer, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and 1 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 followed. A total of 150 slot machine games and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slots and 68 gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slot machines and 70 table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machine games and ninety six gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat chemin de fer (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machines and 66 of the common gaming tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the eight gambling dens in Poipet, again in 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 complex that highlights many amenities accompanying the casino, which has ten thousand sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slots and eighty eight gaming tables.