There is a captivating background to the Cambodia gambling halls that lie just across the border from nearby Thailand, in which casino gambling is illegal. Eight casinos are based in a generally tiny location in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia casinos is in an excellent spot, a three to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 largest gaming centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai workers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The phenomenal income accrued from the casinos ranges from seven and a half million dollars to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a couple of limitations requirements for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mainly Thai; however, financial sources are cryptic. The borders are officially open from 0900 to 5:00 p.m., and despite the fact visas are apparently necessary to pass, there are ways around this, as is true of most border crossings.

The initial Cambodia casinos premiered in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving just a single gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary boat gambling hall, contains 150 slots and 60 gaming tables. The Naga gambling den never closes with forty two tables of mini-baccarat, four tables of chemin de fer, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.

The original gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly followed. A total of one hundred and fifty slots and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slots and 68 tables at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slot machines and 70 table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slots and ninety six gaming tables, including eighty seven punto banco (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machines and 66 of the familiar table games, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight casinos in Poipet, also in a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slots and 97 table games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an international resort and hotel compound that features numerous luxuries accompanying the casino, which has 10,000 square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and 88 table games.