There is a fascinating background to the Cambodia casinos that reside just over the border from nearby Thailand, where gambling hall gaming is prohibited. Eight gambling halls are situated in a generally small space in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling halls is in an excellent location, a 3 to 4 hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 most popular gambling locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a huge business with Thai blue-collar workers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The phenomenal income gained from the gambling dens ranges from $7.5 million to over twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a few limitations constraints for casino ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mainly Thai; still, financial sources are cryptic. The borders are formally open from 09:00 to 5:00 p.m., and even though visas are supposedly needed to cross, there are means around this, as is real of most borders.
The first Cambodia gambling dens premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving just a single gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked barge gambling den, features 150 slots and 60 gaming tables. The Naga river boat never closes with forty two tables of mini-baccarat, 4 tables of blackjack, 10 of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The first casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in 1999 and the Golden Crown before long opened. A total of 150 one armed bandits and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slots and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights 300 slot machines and 70 tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machines and 96 gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat banque (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machines and 66 of the common tables, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, again in a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and ninety seven table games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in a multinational resort and hotel complex that features a number of luxuries on top of the casino, which has ten thousand square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machines and eighty eight table games.
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