There is a captivating story to the Cambodia gambling dens that lie just over the border from next door Thailand, where gambling hall wagering is illegal. Eight gambling dens are anchored in a generally small area in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia gambling dens is in an excellent location, a three to 4 hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest betting locations in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a thriving business with Thai workers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very few Westerners. The astonishing capital acquired from the gambling halls ranges from $7.5 million to over 12.5 million, and there are a few controls constraints for casino ownership. Ownership is required to be mostly Thai; still, funding sources are cryptic. The borders are officially open from 0900 to 1700, and even though visas are allegedly necessary to cross, there are methods and 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 1998, leaving only a single casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored ship gambling hall, features 150 slot machine games and 60 tables. The Naga casino is open 24 hours with 42 tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of twenty-one, 10 of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in 1999 and the Golden Crown soon opened. A total of one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and five table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights three hundred one armed bandits and seventy tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machines and 96 table games, including 87 baccarat banque (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slots and sixty six of the normal tables, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the eight casinos in Poipet, again in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and ninety seven table games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an all-inclusive vacation and hotel complex that highlights many amenities on top of the gambling den, which contains 10,000 square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and eighty eight table games.
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