06.25
Cambodia Gambling Halls
There is an interesting background to the Cambodia gambling halls that reside just across the dividing line from nearby Thailand, where gambling hall gambling is prohibited. Eight gambling halls are situated in a generally small area in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling dens is in a prime spot, a three to four hour travel from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest gambling 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 income gained from the gambling halls ranges from 7.5 million dollars to more than twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a few limitations requirements for casino ownership. Ownership is assumed to be mostly Thai; however, funding sources are ambiguous. The borders are officially open from 09:00 to 1700, and though visas are supposedly needed to cross, there are methods around this, as is real of many borders.
The 1st Cambodia casinos premiered in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were required to close in 1998, leaving only one casino in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, an anchored ship gambling den, features 150 slot machine games and 60 gaming tables. The Naga gambling hall is open all day and night with forty two tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, four tables of vingt-et-un, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and a single table each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.
The original casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown soon opened. A total of 150 slots and 5 tables at the Golden Crown and one hundred and four slot machines and 68 table games at the Holiday Palace. The newest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains three hundred one armed bandits and 70 gaming tables and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slot machine games and ninety six gaming tables, including eighty seven baccarat banque (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with 135 slot machine games and sixty six of the common gaming tables, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the eight casinos in Poipet, also in a hotel, is the Princess Casino with 166 one armed bandits and 97 table games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an all-around resort and hotel building that highlights numerous conveniences in addition to the gambling den, which houses ten thousand square feet of one hundred and thirty slots and eighty eight table games.