Casinos in Cambodia

Where the casinos are: Phnom Penh, the borders and the coast

Casino gambling in Cambodia is concentrated in a handful of places rather than spread across the country. The industry is primarily concentrated in areas like Poipet and Sihanoukville, with the capital, Phnom Penh, anchored by one huge integrated resort⁵. The pattern makes sense when you look at a map: most casinos exist to serve visitors from neighboring countries where gambling is restricted, so they sit as close as possible to the Thai and Vietnamese borders.

The border cluster is the oldest part of the story. Casinos along the Thai and Vietnamese borders have long catered to day-trippers who cross, play, and go home the same day⁶. Poipet faces Thailand on the main Bangkok road, Bavet faces Vietnam on the main Ho Chi Minh City road, and O Smach sits at a smaller Thai crossing at Chong Chom.

The capital got its first casino in unusual style. A $50 million floating casino opened by Cambodia's prime minister on May 1, 1995, moored on the Bassac River in central Phnom Penh, with four floors of gaming rooms⁷. That vessel, run by Ariston Sdn under exclusive rights to operate casinos in Cambodia, was the seed of what became the NagaWorld complex on land today⁷.

The coast is the third cluster. Sihanoukville, Cambodia's beach city, has a set of hotel-casinos along its waterfront, of which Queenco Hotel & Casino on Victory Beach is a well-known example⁸.

Who may enter: foreign passports only

The single most important rule for anyone planning a casino visit in Cambodia: the gaming floors serve foreign passport holders only. This has been the case since the first floating casino opened in 1995, which was open only to foreign passport holders⁷, and it applies across the country today. Foreigners and tourists are allowed to gamble at regulated gaming venues; Cambodian citizens are not⁹.

In practice this means:

• Bring your passport. Ha Tien Vegas states plainly that it may request your passport and visa under Cambodia's gambling regulations¹⁰, and NagaWorld requires valid government-issued photo identification upon request at all gaming entrance checkpoints³.
• The legal casino gambling age in Cambodia is 18⁹. NagaWorld prohibits gaming for anyone under 18³, and Ha Tien Vegas verifies that guests are 18 or over¹¹.
• Cambodian citizens who gamble on offshore online sites are rarely prosecuted, but the activity is prohibited for them⁹.

If you are a visitor or expat with a foreign passport, none of this is an obstacle. Show ID at the door, be 18 or over, and you are in.

NagaWorld: Phnom Penh's only licensed casino resort

NagaWorld is Cambodia's largest and most prestigious casino and entertainment complex, and the only one in the country operating under a government-issued exclusive license¹². It is Phnom Penh's only integrated hotel-casino entertainment complex¹³, which means if you want to gamble in the capital, this is the address.

The scale is remarkable for the region. It is a 1.2 million square foot entertainment complex built around a casino floor, with 1,658 luxurious rooms and suites, 20-plus restaurants, a full-service spa, nightclubs, karaoke bars, and a convention center that seats over a thousand¹². The complex runs across two connected towers, NagaWorld 1 and NagaWorld 2, linked by NagaCity Walk, an underground duty-free shopping gallery¹². The gaming itself sits in an eight-floor entertainment building¹⁵, with two distinctive floors offering different themes and atmospheres¹.

The casino operates 24 hours, with gaming tables and electronic gaming around the clock¹⁶. Table games include baccarat, blackjack, roulette, Sic Bo, and several poker variants¹². For premium customers there is a private VIP casino and gaming salon with higher limits, privacy and premium offerings¹. Nightly live entertainment includes singers, bands and traditional Khmer entertainment¹⁶.

Poker players get a dedicated scene. The NagaWorld poker room runs 24/7 with eight games running nightly¹⁷, hosts weekly low stakes tournaments¹⁸, and serves as host for international poker festivals throughout the year in partnership with global brands¹⁸.

Getting there is easy: NagaWorld is roughly five kilometers from Pochentong International Airport, about twenty minutes by tuk-tuk and less by private car¹². Inside, you will find ATMs from Canadia Bank, Cambodian Asia Bank, CIMB Bank, Maybank and ANZ Bank, plus cash advance options for international travelers¹⁹. Cards accepted in Cambodia include Visa, Mastercard and JCB¹⁹.

For the full picture, see NagaWorld: Entry Rules, Games and Getting There.

Border towns: Poipet, Bavet and O Smach

The border casinos exist for one reason: they are a short walk or drive from Thailand and Vietnam, where casinos are not available to locals. Each town has its own character.

Poipet, on the Thai border on the main road from Bangkok, is the biggest of the Thai-facing towns. Its poker scene is anchored by Sands Poker Club, which describes itself as the best poker house in Poipet²⁰. For more, see Casinos in Poipet.

Bavet, on the Vietnamese border on the road from Ho Chi Minh City, is the main Vietnamese-facing crossing. Its flagship is Lucky Ruby Border Casino. Ha Tien Vegas, covered in its own section below, is not in Bavet at all: the resort sits in Prek Chak, Kompong Trach, Kampot Province, roughly 150 km from Phnom Penh²¹. For more, see Casinos in Bavet.

O Smach is the quirkiest of the three. Two casino hotels and a market were built in the space between the Cambodian and Thai passport checkpoints at Chong Chom⁴. Because the casinos sit between the two immigration posts, Thai nationals can cross and return without passing Cambodian immigration⁴. It is, in effect, a casino zone that belongs to neither country's formal entry process.

Border casinos took a heavy hit during the 2020 closures, when casinos along the Thai and Vietnamese borders did not reopen even as Phnom Penh's venues sought permission to resume⁶. The towns have since rebuilt around the day-trip trade.

Sihanoukville and the coastal casinos

Sihanoukville, on the Gulf of Thailand, is the second major concentration of casinos after the border towns⁵. The city's casino era grew alongside its beach tourism, and the venues here are more resort-like than the border sheds: you come for the sea and stay for the floor.

The best-known example is Queenco Hotel & Casino, a seaside retreat on the white sands of Victory Beach⁸. It offers a wide selection of games including Baccarat, Blackjack and Roulette plus the latest slot machines, and it is open 24 hours every day⁸. It is only 17 km from Sihanoukville International Airport (KOS), so it works as a fly-in destination⁸.

Popular games in Cambodian casinos generally include blackjack, poker, roulette and slot machines⁵, and the coastal venues follow that pattern with a resort atmosphere around them. For the full picture of the city's floors, see Casinos in Sihanoukville.

Ha Tien Vegas near the Vietnamese border

Ha Tien Vegas Entertainment Resort is the largest casino and entertainment complex in Kampot, Cambodia, located on Road 33 in Prek Chak, Kompong Trach, near the Cambodian-Vietnam international border²¹. It exists largely for Vietnamese players, who can reach it easily from Ha Tien, Kien Giang and Can Tho, but it welcomes visitors from Cambodia and further afield too²².

The casino runs 24/7, every day, with table games, slots and roulette². The game list includes Bai Buu, Niu Niu, Baccarat and Dragon Tiger at the tables, plus slot machines and roulette machines². There are eight Baccarat tables operating around the clock²³.

Stakes are friendly for beginners. Table games typically start at $10, while slots run from $0.10 to $1¹¹. E-roulette has lower minimum betting limits than the live tables, making it accessible for all budgets²⁴.

Beyond the casino, the resort is a full destination: a 4-star hotel, restaurants and a cafe, karaoke, spa and massage, a coffee shop, a kid zone, a conference room, a beauty salon and even a soccer field²¹. VIP guests get dedicated account managers, free drinks and snacks, rebates, event invitations, free hotel stays, room upgrades and luxury transport depending on their level²⁶.

Getting there is straightforward. The resort is 150 km from Phnom Penh, 55 km from Kampot and 25 km from Kep²¹. It is also only 10 km from the Phu Quoc island express ferry, which takes 1 hour and 15 minutes, making it a gateway stop for travelers combining Cambodia with Vietnam's Phu Quoc island²¹. There is a booking office on the Vietnamese side, behind the Hong Thuan motel in Xa Xia, My Duc, Ha Tien, Kien Giang²¹. Contact numbers: Cambodia +855 81 23 20 03, Vietnam +84 941 341 545¹¹.

Dress is smart casual at minimum: no extreme clothing, closed shoes, and a clean, well-presented appearance¹¹. Staff are available to discuss self-restrictions or exclusion from the casino floor if needed²⁴.

For the full picture, see Ha Tien Vegas Entertainment Resort: Entry Rules, Games and Getting There.

Table games, slots and poker on the floor

Walk onto a Cambodian casino floor and you will find a familiar spread. Popular games include blackjack, poker, roulette and slot machines⁵. Baccarat dominates, as it does across Asia, and a couple of local favorites round out the tables.

Baccarat is the headline game. It is a comparing card game between Banker and Player, with three possible outcomes: player wins, banker wins or a tie²⁷. Both sides receive two cards, and a third card may be drawn per the tableau, handled entirely by the dealer²⁷. Cards are worth face value, aces count as one, and face cards count as zero; the hand closest to 9 wins²⁸. Ha Tien Vegas runs eight Baccarat tables 24/7²³. For the full rules, see Baccarat in Cambodia.

Dragon Tiger is the fastest game on the floor and one of Asia's most popular card games. It is played with a standard deck of cards²⁹: one card for Dragon, one for Tiger, and the higher card wins. If both cards have equal value, the result is a tie²⁹. Special cards offer the potential to win 11 times your stake². For more, see Dragon Tiger.

Bai Buu and Niu Niu are regional card games you will find at Ha Tien Vegas alongside the international tables². They draw mainly Vietnamese players and are worth watching a few rounds before sitting down.

Roulette comes in both live and electronic form. E-roulette at Ha Tien Vegas features lower minimum betting limits than the live tables, which makes it a good entry point for beginners²⁴.

Slots are everywhere. At Ha Tien Vegas the named titles include DFDC, Good Fortunes, 5 KOI, Fortune King and 5 Dragons³⁰. How you win depends on each game's paytable: many slots pay on other symbol combinations, scatter wins or bonus rounds rather than three matching symbols on one payline, so check the paytable before you spin³¹. For more, see Slot Machines in Cambodia.

Poker has a real presence. NagaWorld's poker room runs 24/7 with eight games running nightly¹⁷, weekly low stakes tournaments¹⁸, and international poker festivals through the year¹⁸. In Poipet, Sands Poker Club keeps a dedicated poker room on the Thai border²⁰. Online, Natural8 is a major poker room serving the region, with hundreds of thousands of players online and software you install to play³². For more, see Poker in Cambodia and Poker Tournaments in Cambodia.

For a game-by-game walkthrough, see Casino Games in Cambodia.

Online slots and offshore sites

There are no domestically licensed online casinos in Cambodia, but residents do explore foreign ones⁹. One operator site claims Cambodia is one of the few countries in the region where online slots are legal³¹, though the practical picture is murkier: the sites Cambodians actually use are offshore operations licensed in jurisdictions like Panama, Anjouan, Mwali, Curaçao, the Isle of Man and Malta⁹. Using them can constitute illegal gambling for Cambodian citizens, though authorities rarely prosecute locals for it⁹.

The offshore sites are large. One independent directory lists 769 casinos accepting players from Cambodia⁹. Their lobbies carry games from providers including Play'n GO, BGaming, Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, AvatarUX, Hacksaw Gaming, Blueprint Gaming, PG Soft and Evolution, with some sites offering more than ten thousand titles⁹. Popular slots across the region include Mega Moolah, Hall of Gods, Bonanza Megaways, Sweet Bonanza and Reactoonz³³.

Payments on these sites lean heavily on crypto. Tether, Bitcoin and Ethereum are the top choices for Cambodian online gamblers, followed by Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash and Binance Coin⁹. Local payment methods in Cambodia include Wing Money, ABA Pay, Pi Pay and TrueMoney⁹.

If you go this route, stick to the practical safeguards: check where a site is licensed. For more, see Online Gambling in Cambodia and Gambling Scams in Cambodia.

Casinos in Cambodia: the pages in this guide

This guide covers Cambodia's casinos place by place and game by game. Here is what each page holds:

Related pages that round out the picture: Gambling in Cambodia, Gambling in Cambodia as a Visitor, Gambling Payments in Cambodia, Gambling Laws in Cambodia and Gambling Help in Cambodia.