Cambodia Gambling Halls
There is an interesting background to the Cambodia gambling dens that sit just across the dividing line from neighboring Thailand, where casino gambling is banned. Eight casinos are based in a generally small location in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia gambling halls is in an excellent destination, a three to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the two most popular gaming locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai laborers and guests from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The astonishing income gained from the casinos ranges from seven and a half million dollars to more than 12.5 million, and there are a few controls constraints for casino ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mainly Thai; still, financing sources are ambiguous. The borders are formally open from 09:00 to 1700, and though visas are supposedly needed to pass, there are methods and means around this, as is correct of many borders.
The first Cambodia gambling halls opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving only one casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored boat casino, contains one hundred and fifty slot machines and 60 table games. The Naga gambling hall is open 24 hours with 42 tables of mini-punto banco, 4 tables of twenty-one, ten of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The 1st gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon followed. A total of one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slots and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slot machines and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and 96 table games, including 87 baccarat banque (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slot machine games and sixty six of the normal gaming tables, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, also in a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and 97 table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an international vacation and hotel complex that contains a number of amenities aside from the casino, which houses 10,000 sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and eighty eight table games.