Cambodian border town bets on vice

With no gambling regulations, Poipet is crowned casino capital of Southeast AsiaBy Benjamin PaukerSpecial to the TribunePublished December 7, 2005

POIPET, Cambodia -- The noonday sun does not discriminate. It scorches old men wheeling ragged, homemade carts stacked high with sandals and baskets to market across a bridge at the Thai border.

Korean tourists sweat while waiting in line for Cambodian visas. Young beggars take shelter in the shade, or retreat to the creek beneath the bridge, which runs gray and frothy amid mountains of trash.Yet, as the sun sets and neon signs flicker to life, Poipet comes alive.

This dusty border town, not far from where the remnants of the Khmer Rouge holed up before finally surrendering in 1999, is the new gambling capital of Southeast Asia.It is home to nine glitzy casinos and sprawling high-rise hotels that beckon thousands of Thai and East Asian travelers willing to try their luck at baccarat, blackjack and fighting-cock-themed slot machines.

The casinos, with such names as Tropicana and Golden Crown, are in a roughly quarter-mile-wide special administrative zone between the Thai border and the official entry point to Cambodia.

Star Vegas, the most luxurious of the properties, boasts elegant VIP rooms, a nightclub and an 18-hole golf course. Greens fees are less than $8.

"And no more land mines," assures Adoon Sradindam, a front office manager.

Owned by publicity-shy Thai, Sino-Cambodian, Malaysian and Indonesian investors, the casinos have sprouted like rice in the rainy season, unburdened by national gaming laws or registration.

The oldest, Holiday Poipet, is just six years old. Already, their existence is threatened by the planned $3 billion construction of two mega-casinos in Singapore, which recently repealed its 40-year ban on gambling. Thailand's prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, also has floated the idea of building casinos to bring tourism back to the tsunami-ravaged resorts in the south.

Anti-gambling religious beliefs among Thailand's Buddhists and Singapore's Muslims have long prevented state-sanctioned casinos, but the tide is turning.Gamblers, but on the sly"Thais gamble like everyone else," says Mam, who would not give his full name and once worked in an illegal casino in Bangkok's On Nut neighborhood.

"They just don't like to be seen doing it." Temporarily unemployed, he has come to Cambodia.

At Holiday Poipet, an understated Chinese-themed casino, he plays fantan, a popular table game.People slurp from bowls of noodles as the bored teenage dealer cups dozens of yellow plastic beads in a ceramic rice bowl, then puts the pile on the table. A second dealer divides the beads into groups of four.

Before the parsing, bets are placed on the number that can't be divided into groups of four.
Mam, like the other 20 people at the table, is keeping count of the results, as if a winning pattern might be divined. "I have a system," he said. "In one hour, I won 100,000 baht [about $2,400] at roulette.
"It is a fortune in Poipet, where casino employees regularly earn 4,000 baht (about $95) a month.Though technically within Cambodia, the casinos deal solely in Thai currency. Bets, salaries, winnings and losses are paid in baht, not the Cambodian riel.

Poipet is a notorious border town: dirty, dangerous, and until six years ago, not a good place for an overnight stay. It is on the road from Bangkok to Phnom Penh and Siem Riep, where the jungle temple complex of Angkor Wat draws tens of thousands of visitors annually.

Most Westerners passing through Poipet come from Bangkok to renew tourist visas or are budget backpackers who make the overland journey to Angkor, a cheap but back-wrenching trip. Small Toyota pickups offer transit for $6, an 8-hour ride between Bangkok and Angkor Wat along one of the worst major roads in Asia. The potholes are monstrous.`Armpit' of Cambodia

The border itself is notorious. Numerous Internet discussion boards for travelers warn of beggars, touts and pickpockets who roam the dusty streets. Brothels line the main road out of town toward Cambodia's central plains. The Lonely Planet guidebook, a bible for independent travelers, writes, "If Cambodia were a body, Poipet would be the armpit."

The glitzy gambling palaces are the town's sole economic engines. When the Thai government closed the border in 2003 to protest the attack of its embassy in Phnom Penh by angry Cambodian mobs, daily revenue losses were estimated at roughly $7-10 million

Asian governments are taking note of the flourishing casino industry in Macau, a former Portuguese colony now under Chinese control, where gambling revenues reached $5.1 billion in 2004. According to the American Gaming Association, Las Vegas recorded $5.33 billion in revenue last year.

Regional governments are relaxing similar restrictions on gaming, prompting analysts at Merrill Lynch to predict this October that there will be at least 50 new casinos in East Asia by 2012, and that gaming revenues will triple to $44.8 billion.

Singapore, a city-state off the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula known for its strict ordinances on public speech and moral rectitude, is positioning itself to be on the vanguard of this boom.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has promoted the creation of two massive "integrated resorts," with hotels, shopping, restaurants, theme parks, museums and casinos.

"We cannot stand still," he told parliament in April. "We are at serious risk of being left behind by other cities." Singapore intends to tax those who go to casinos $60 to ensure that the youth and impoverished will not be corrupted. Officials hope to attract a high class of clientele.

If Thailand moves to keep pace with the casino market, Poipet's glory days will soon be gone.

But for now, gambling in Thailand is still illegal, except at racetracks and the state lottery. It is a short day trip from Bangkok to the Cambodian border. And because the casinos are in a no-man's land between the Thai border and the official Cambodian entry point, Thais don't need a visa. Express buses leave just after dawn from downtown Bangkok's Lumpini Park.

"Today, I am supposed to go to church, but I go to casino," says Dala Paleebut as the bus leaves Bangkok. The journey is three hours in air-conditioned comfort. Overdubbed American movies, gory Thai martial arts flicks and bubble-gum pop videos play on the video screens."

I am addicted to gambling," she says with a wide smile, "like drugs, like a man loves a woman." As the bus stops at Aranyaprathet, on the Thai side of the border, she jumps out, dodging the gathering beggars, touts and motorcycles to be first in the long queue of Thais waiting to test their luck.

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