Cambodia Gambling Halls
There is an appealing background to the Cambodia gambling halls that sit just across the dividing line from neighboring Thailand, where casino gambling is illegal. Eight casinos are situated in a generally small area in the metropolis of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia gambling halls is in an excellent destination, a 3 to four hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the two most popular gaming locations 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 couple of Westerners. The astonishing capital gained from the gambling dens ranges from 7.5 million dollars to over twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a number of controls requirements for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mostly Thai; still, financing sources are vague. The borders are ceremoniously open from 9:00 a.m. to 17:00, and although visas are for all intents and purposes needed to cross, there are methods and means around this, as is true of most borders.
The initial Cambodia gambling dens opened in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving just one gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored ship gambling hall, features one hundred and fifty slot machine games and sixty tables. The Naga casino is open all hours with 42 tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of vingt-et-un, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and 1 each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in 1999 and the Golden Crown soon opened. There are 150 slot machine games and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machines and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains 300 slots and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machine games and ninety six gaming tables, including 87 punto banco (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 one armed bandits and 66 of the common table games, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the 8 gambling dens in Poipet, again in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machine games and 97 table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a multinational vacation and hotel building that features a number of luxuries aside from the casino, which contains ten thousand square feet of one hundred and thirty one armed bandits and eighty eight gaming tables.