There is an interesting background to the Cambodia casinos that reside just over the dividing line from next door Thailand, in which casino gaming is prohibited. Eight casinos are established in a relatively small space in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling dens is in a perfect area, a 3 to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two most popular gaming centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling dens do a thriving business with Thai workers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very couple of Westerners. The phenomenal capital acquired from the gambling dens ranges from 7.5 million dollars to more than 12.5 million, and there are a number of restrictions constraints for casino ownership. Ownership is presumed to be largely Thai; however, financing sources are vague. The borders are formally open from 9:00 a.m. to 1700, and although visas are for all intents and purposes required to pass, there are methods and means around this, as is real of many borders.
The 1st Cambodia casinos premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were forced to close in 1998, leaving just one gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored ship gambling hall, features 150 slots and sixty tables. The Naga gambling hall is open all day and night with forty two tables of mini-baccarat banque, four 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 den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly opened. A total of one hundred and fifty slot machines and five table games at the Golden Crown and 104 one armed bandits and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features 300 slot machine games and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 one armed bandits and ninety six gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machines and 66 of the normal gaming tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the 8 casinos in Poipet, also in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machines and 97 casino games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in a multinational vacation and hotel building that highlights many luxuries aside from the gambling den, which houses 10,000 square feet of 130 slot machines and 88 gaming tables.
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