There is a fascinating background to the Cambodia gambling halls that reside just over the border from nearby Thailand, where gambling hall gaming is against the law. Eight gambling dens are established in a relatively small space in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This collection of Cambodia gambling halls is in a prime area, a three to four hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 biggest betting centers in Asia. Cambodia casinos 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 gambling halls ranges from 7.5 million dollars to over twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a couple of restrictions requirements for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is presumed to be largely Thai; however, funding sources are ambiguous. The borders are formally open from 0900 to 1700, and although visas are supposedly needed to cross, there are methods and means around this, as is correct of many border crossings.

The 1st Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving just one gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored barge casino, features one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and 60 table games. The Naga casino is open all hours with forty two tables of mini-baccarat banque, 4 tables of blackjack, ten of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.

The 1st gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in 1999 and the Golden Crown before long followed. There are 150 slot machine games and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machines and 68 table games at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights three hundred slot machine games and seventy tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slots and ninety six gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Additionally, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machine games and 66 of the familiar table games, as well as a single table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the 8 gambling dens in Poipet, again a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and ninety seven casino games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an all-inclusive vacation and hotel complex that highlights a number of conveniences aside from the gambling den, which houses ten thousand sq.ft. of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and eighty eight table games.