Casino Tips

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

There is a captivating story to the Cambodia gambling halls that sit just across the border from neighboring Thailand, where casino betting is illegal. Eight gambling halls are anchored in a generally tiny location in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This conclave of Cambodia gambling dens is in a prime area, a 3 to 4 hour trip from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest wagering centers in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a thriving business with Thai laborers and travelers from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very couple of Westerners. The astonishing income gained from the casinos ranges from 7.5 million dollars to over 12.5 million dollars, and there are a few restrictions requirements for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is presumed to be mainly Thai; although, financing sources are cryptic. The borders are officially open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and even though visas are for all intents and purposes required to cross, there are methods and means around this, as is true of most borders.

The original Cambodia casinos premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in 1998, leaving just a single gambling hall in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a moored ship casino, highlights one hundred and fifty slots and 60 tables. The Naga casino never closes with forty two tables of mini-punto banco, 4 tables of vingt-et-un, ten of roulette, two of Caribbean Stud Poker, and 1 each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.

The initial casino in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, opened in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly opened. There are one hundred and fifty slots and 5 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 contains three hundred 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 popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. Also, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machine games and sixty six of the normal tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. Another one of the eight casinos in Poipet, again a part of a hotel, is the Princess Casino with one hundred and sixty six one armed bandits and 97 games. The Star Vegas Casino is part of an all-inclusive resort and hotel complex that contains many luxuries aside from the gambling den, which has 10,000 square feet of 130 slot machine games and 88 gaming tables.