A new US$3.5 million casino will open in Ratanakkiri province, according to a representative of Try Pheap Import Export Company.

“We’ll have a similar kind of casino to what they have in Bavet,” Bee Chivoan Dara said.

Try Pheap Mittapheap Casino Entertainment Resort is built on more than five hectares, surrounded by an area of 150 hectares in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district, about a kilometre from the Vietnam border.

The developer, Cambodian tycoon Try Pheap, has spent about $2 million on construction so far and the development would include residential housing, a business center, warehouses, a market and a bus station, he said.

An estimated 100 people would be employed in August when casino operations begin.

Customers were already coming from Vietnam during temporary ground floor gambling, he said.

“Nowadays, we operate temporarily in the ground floor with a few tables for guests. Guests come in and out and there are some increases, and mostly they are Vietnamese.”

Nget Pitou, director of Ratanakkiri province’s Tourism Department, said that though the casino is a place for gambling where people can lose money, such developments would also attract tourists to visit the province who were looking for entertainment.

“Nowadays, Ratanakkiri is not as remote and silent because road construction is almost complete,” he said.

Long Rokha, director of O’Yadav International Border checkpoint police, said that between 50 and 60 Vietnamese visitors crossed the checkpoint each day, except during national holidays when the numbers increased to 150 to 160 per day.

“The increase of the visitors in future depends on the casino’s marketing efforts to attract clients,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rann Reuy at [email protected]