There is a fascinating story to the Cambodia casinos that lie just over the dividing line from neighboring Thailand, where casino betting is not legal. Eight gambling dens are established in a relatively small location in the metropolis of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia gambling halls is in an excellent area, a 3 to 4 hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 biggest gambling locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a thriving business with Thai blue-collar workers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The amazing capital gained from the casinos ranges from $7.5 million to more than 12.5 million dollars, and there are a number of controls constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mainly Thai; however, investment sources are cryptic. The borders are ceremoniously open from 0900 to 5:00 p.m., and though visas are supposedly required to pass, there are means around this, as is accurate of most border crossings.
The first Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving only one gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked barge gambling den, features 150 slot machine games and 60 tables. The Naga gambling den is open 24 hours with 42 tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of vingt-et-un, ten of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The initial gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in 1999 and the Golden Crown quickly opened. There are 150 slots and five tables at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred one armed bandits and seventy tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and ninety six table games, including eighty seven punto banco (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machines and sixty six of the familiar tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, again in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and ninety seven games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a comprehensive resort and hotel building that features numerous luxuries accompanying the gambling den, which has 10,000 sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slot machines and eighty eight table games.

