Cambodia Gambling Halls
There is a captivating background to the Cambodia casinos that lie just over the border from neighboring Thailand, where gambling hall wagering is not legal. Eight casinos are situated in a relatively small space in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This conclave of Cambodia casinos is in a prime spot, a 3 to four hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 biggest gaming locations in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a thriving business with Thai workers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The amazing capital accrued from the gambling dens ranges from $7.5 million to over twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a couple of restrictions constraints for gambling den ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mainly Thai; however, funding sources are vague. The borders are officially open from 09:00 to 17:00, and even though visas are apparently necessary to cross, there are ways around this, as is true of most border crossings.
The original Cambodia casinos premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in 1998, leaving only one casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored boat gambling hall, highlights one hundred and fifty slots and sixty gaming tables. The Naga casino is open all hours with 42 tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of blackjack, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon followed. There are 150 slot machines and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machines and sixty eight tables at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slots and 70 tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machine games and 96 gaming tables, including 87 punto banco (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slots and sixty six of the common table games, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight casinos in Poipet, again a part of a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machines and ninety seven games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an international vacation and hotel compound that contains numerous comforts in addition to the gambling hall, which contains 10,000 square feet of one hundred and thirty one armed bandits and eighty eight table games.