There is a fascinating story to the Cambodia gambling dens that sit just across the border from nearby Thailand, in which gambling den gaming is not legal. Eight casinos are established in a relatively tiny space in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia casinos is in a prime area, a 3 to 4 hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two most popular wagering centers in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a huge business with Thai workers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a few Westerners. The amazing capital accrued from the casinos ranges from $7.5 million to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a number of restrictions constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is required to be largely Thai; still, financing sources are vague. The borders are ceremoniously open from 0900 to 17:00, and even though visas are apparently necessary to cross, there are methods around this, as is true of most borders.

The original Cambodia gambling dens opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in 1998, leaving only one gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored barge gambling hall, contains 150 slot machine games and 60 tables. The Naga river boat is open all hours with forty two tables of mini-baccarat, 4 tables of vingt-et-un, ten 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, premiered in 1999 and the Golden Crown quickly opened. There are 150 slot machine games and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machine games and sixty eight table games at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort highlights three hundred slot machine games and 70 gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machines and ninety six gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slot machine games and 66 of the normal tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight gambling dens in Poipet, also in a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and ninety seven casino games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an international resort and hotel building that contains many comforts accompanying the gambling den, which has 10,000 square feet of one hundred and thirty one armed bandits and 88 table games.