There is a fascinating background to the Cambodia gambling halls that lie just across the border from neighboring Thailand, where gambling den betting is not legal. Eight casinos are anchored in a generally small area in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia gambling dens is in a perfect destination, a 3 to four hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the two most popular betting locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai workers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very couple of Westerners. The amazing capital accrued from the gambling halls ranges from seven and a half million dollars to over twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a number of limitations constraints for gambling den ownership. Ownership is required to be largely Thai; still, investment sources are cryptic. The borders are officially open from 0900 to 5:00 p.m., and although visas are apparently needed to cross, there are methods around this, as is real of most borders.

The initial Cambodia gambling halls premiered in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving only 1 casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored barge casino, features one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and 60 tables. The Naga casino never closes with forty two tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, 4 tables of twenty-one, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.

The original gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon opened. A total of 150 slots and five tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machine games and 68 gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The newer Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slot machine games and 70 tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slot machine games and 96 gaming tables, including eighty seven punto banco (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 one armed bandits and sixty six of the normal tables, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, also a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and 97 games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of a multinational resort and hotel building that contains many luxuries in addition to the gambling hall, which offers ten thousand sq.ft. of 130 slots and eighty eight table games.