There is a captivating background to the Cambodia casinos that lie just across the border from neighboring Thailand, where gambling hall wagering is banned. Eight casinos are established in a generally small area in the municipality of Poipet in Cambodia. This group of Cambodia gambling dens is in a perfect area, a 3 to four hour drive from Bangkok and Macao, the two biggest betting locations in Asia. Cambodia casinos do a huge business with Thai laborers and tourists from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, with just a couple of Westerners. The phenomenal income accrued from the gambling halls ranges from 7.5 million dollars to over twelve and a half million dollars, and there are a couple of controls constraints for gambling hall ownership. Ownership is assumed to be largely Thai; although, funding sources are cryptic. The borders are officially open from 0900 to 17:00, and though visas are apparently necessary to pass, there are means around this, as is true of most border crossings.

The first Cambodia gambling dens premiered in Phnom Penh in the mid nineties, but were required to close in 1998, leaving just a single gambling den in the capital, the Naga Resort. The Naga, a stationary boat gambling den, contains one hundred and fifty one armed bandits and 60 table games. The Naga casino is open 24 hours with 42 tables of mini-baccarat chemin de fer, 4 tables of blackjack, ten 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, premiered in the late nineties and the Golden Crown before long opened. There are one hundred and fifty slot machine games and five table games at the Golden Crown and 104 slots and sixty eight tables at the Holiday Palace. The latest Holiday Palace Casino and Resort features three hundred slots and 70 table games and the Princess Hotel and Casino, also in Poipet, has one hundred and sixty six slots and ninety six table games, including eighty seven baccarat chemin de fer (the most dominant game), Fan Tan, and Pai Gow. In addition, there is the Casino Tropicana, with one hundred and thirty five slot machines and sixty six of the common tables, as well as 1 table of Casino Stud Poker. One more of the 8 gambling dens in Poipet, again a part of a motel, is the Princess Casino with 166 slot machine games and ninety seven games. The Star Vegas Casino is is located in an all-inclusive resort and hotel compound that contains many luxuries on top of the gambling den, which contains ten thousand square feet of one hundred and thirty slot machine games and 88 tables.