Cambodia Casinos
There is an appealing story to the Cambodia gambling halls that lie just across the dividing line from next door Thailand, in which gambling den gaming is not allowed. Eight gambling halls are based in a relatively tiny space in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia gambling halls is in an excellent destination, a 3 to 4 hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 most popular wagering locations in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a huge business with Thai workers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The phenomenal capital acquired from the casinos ranges from seven and a half million dollars to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a number of controls constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is required to be mostly Thai; still, financing sources are cryptic. The borders are formally open from 9:00 a.m. to 17:00, and although visas are for all intents and purposes necessary to pass, there are means around this, as is true of most borders.
The original Cambodia gambling halls opened in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving only one gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored bateau gambling den, contains one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and 60 tables. The Naga casino is open all hours with forty two tables of mini-baccarat, 4 tables of blackjack, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly opened. A total of 150 one armed bandits and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machines and 68 tables at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains 300 slots and 70 gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machine games and 96 gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat chemin de fer (the most beloved game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slot machines and sixty six of the normal gaming tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, also a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machines and 97 table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an all-inclusive vacation and hotel complex that highlights many conveniences aside from the gambling hall, which houses ten thousand sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slot machines and 88 gaming tables.