To make up for the shortfall in Thai visitors Donaco sought out gamblers from Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Macau by signing deals with new junket operators. “You are competing with other operators who may not necessarily be fair.”

“If you operate in Cambodia, you operate at your own risk,” says Peter Cohen, a prominent gaming industry advisor and former regulator who is now with the Agenda Group and helped draft Cambodia's yet-to-be-introduced casino laws. Wherever you go in the world, casinos are a risky business both for the punters who walk through the doors and dream of going home with full pockets, and for the owners who spend top dollar to create the most luxurious settings, and whose fortunes can swing dramatically on a handful of lucky – or unlucky – winning streaks.īut with a groundswell of new casino licences and an absence of any government regulation on how they operate, casinos in Cambodia are probably as dicey as they get. it’s probably the same size as The Star casino in Sydney.” “Our property is the largest, best-quality casino there – 100 gaming tables, 1200 slot machines. “There’s a whole strip of casinos, about 10 casinos, all servicing the Thai market,” says Ben Reichel, Donaco’s executive director.