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There is a fascinating story to the Cambodia gambling halls that reside just across the border from neighboring Thailand, in which gambling den gambling is not permitted. Eight gambling dens are based in a generally small area in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling halls is in an excellent location, a 3 to four hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the 2 most popular betting locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a huge business with Thai blue-collar workers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The phenomenal income gained from the casinos ranges from 7.5 million dollars to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a number of controls requirements for gambling den ownership. Ownership is required to be largely Thai; still, financial sources are cryptic. The borders are formally open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and though visas are allegedly necessary to pass, there are ways around this, as is real of most borders.

The first Cambodia casinos opened in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in 1998, leaving only a single casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked barge casino, highlights 150 slots and 60 gaming tables. The Naga gambling hall never closes with forty two tables of mini-baccarat banque, 4 tables of 21, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.

The first gambling den in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in 1999 and the Golden Crown quickly followed. There are one hundred and fifty slot machines and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and sixty eight gaming tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains 300 slot machine games and seventy table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and 96 gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat banque (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 familiar table games, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight gambling halls in Poipet, again a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slots and ninety seven games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an all-inclusive resort and hotel compound that contains many luxuries aside from the gambling hall, which houses ten thousand square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and eighty eight table games.