There is a fascinating background to the Cambodia gambling dens that sit just across the border from neighboring Thailand, in which gambling hall gaming is not permitted. Eight gambling dens are anchored in a relatively small area in the city of Poipet in Cambodia. This band of Cambodia gambling halls is in a perfect area, a 3 to 4 hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two most popular gambling locations in Asia. Cambodia gambling halls do a thriving business with Thai blue-collar workers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with only very couple of Westerners. The astonishing income acquired from the casinos ranges from $7.5 million to over twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a few controls requirements for gambling den ownership. Ownership is required to be largely Thai; although, funding sources are vague. The borders are officially open from 0900 to 1700, and although visas are for all intents and purposes necessary to pass, there are ways around this, as is real of many border crossings.

The 1st Cambodia gambling dens premiered in Phnom Penh in 1994, but were forced to close in the late nineties, leaving just one gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a docked barge gambling hall, contains one hundred and fifty slot machines and 60 gaming tables. The Naga gambling den never closes with forty two tables of mini-baccarat, four tables of twenty-one, 10 of roulette, 2 of Caribbean Stud Poker, and one each of Pai-Gow and Tai-Sai.

The 1st gambling hall in Poipet, the Holiday Palace, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown quickly followed. A total of 150 slots and 5 table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slot machine games and sixty eight tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort contains three hundred slot machines and 70 table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has 166 slots and 96 table games, including 87 baccarat chemin de fer (the most popular game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machine games and 66 of the familiar gaming tables, as well as one table of Casino Stud Poker. An additional of the 8 gambling halls in Poipet, again 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 an all-inclusive resort and hotel building that features many amenities on top of the casino, which has 10,000 square feet of 130 slots and eighty eight tables.