Inside Asian Gaming

MAY 2015 inside asian gaming 27 casinos, Poipet’s main competition for players that don’t want to fly. Thailand’s economic growth, though dampened by political strife, keeps producing additional gaming demand for Poipet. Golden Crown, which has three casinos and four hotels, is building two hotel additions, including a 15-storey tower that would be the tallest in Poipet. Poipet is also finding new revenue from online gaming run by casinos or third parties. Streamed videos of young women placidly dealing cards under bright lights on Poipet’s gaming floors feed the live dealer betting functionality on online gaming sites around the world. Casinos also rent office space to online gaming enterprises. Golden Crown’s new walkway linking its properties includes space for online gaming webcasts, back offices and call centers. But the main business of Poipet is conducted face to face. Minimums bets are as low as B40 ($1.25) with VIP maximums up to B800,000. As across Asia, baccarat dominates. Poipet’s casinos employ about 10,000 people, most of them Cambodians, also known as Khmers, in part to prevent dealers colluding with the Thai players. Casinos have instituted a minimum wage of B5,000, nearly 20% above Cambodia’s national standard. Some casinos look like church basements hosting a “Las Vegas Night” under harsh fluorescent lighting with players seated on dinette chairs. Others resemble gaming halls in Nevada border towns such as Jean or Mesquite or smaller satellite casinos in Macau, Poipet’s first casino, Holiday Palace, opened in 1998 with 12 tables. Today, Poipet has ten casinos with about 750 tables, 3,900 gaming machines and around 2,500 hotel rooms along an inverted L-shaped strip with that welcoming arch at its corner.