Cambodia Gambling Dens
There is an interesting background to the Cambodia gambling halls that sit just over the border from neighboring Thailand, where casino gaming is not permitted. Eight gambling dens are anchored in a generally small space in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia gambling halls is in a perfect location, a three to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest betting centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a thriving business with Thai blue-collar workers and guests from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The phenomenal income acquired from the casinos ranges from $7.5 million to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a few controls requirements for casino ownership. Ownership is required to be mostly Thai; however, financial sources are cryptic. The borders are officially open from 09:00 to 1700, and even though visas are supposedly needed to cross, there are means around this, as is true of most border crossings.
The first Cambodia casinos opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving only one gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored ship casino, features 150 slot machines and sixty tables. The Naga river boat never closes with forty two tables of mini-punto banco, four tables of chemin de fer, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly followed. A total of one hundred and fifty slot machine games and five table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machines and sixty eight gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights three hundred slot machine games and seventy tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machines and ninety six table games, including eighty seven baccarat chemin de fer (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slots and 66 of the familiar tables, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight casinos in Poipet, also in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and 97 games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a multinational vacation and hotel complex that features a number of comforts accompanying the gambling hall, which offers ten thousand square feet of one hundred and thirty slots and eighty eight tables.