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There is a fascinating history to the Cambodia casinos that lie just over the dividing line from next door Thailand, where casino gambling is prohibited. Eight casinos are anchored in a generally small location in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia gambling dens is in a perfect location, a three to four hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 most popular betting locations in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a thriving business with Thai blue-collar workers and visitors from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very couple of Westerners. The phenomenal income gained from the gambling dens ranges from seven and a half million dollars to over twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a few controls constraints for gambling den ownership. Ownership is required to be mainly Thai; still, funding sources are vague. The borders are formally open from 0900 to 5:00 p.m., and though visas are supposedly necessary to cross, there are ways around this, as is true of many borders.

The original Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in the late nineties, leaving only 1 gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary barge gambling den, contains 150 slot machines and 60 gaming tables. The Naga gambling hall is open 24 hours with 42 tables of mini-punto banco, four tables of chemin de fer, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.

The first casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in 1999 and the Golden Crown quickly followed. A total of one hundred and fifty slot machines and five table games at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machine games and sixty eight tables at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains 300 one armed bandits and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and 96 table games, including 87 baccarat banque (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five one armed bandits and sixty six of the normal table games, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the eight gambling dens in Poipet, again in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machine games and ninety seven table games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an all-around resort and hotel building that contains many amenities accompanying the casino, which provides 10,000 square feet of one hundred and thirty one armed bandits and 88 table games.