十年前，没有人会预想到澳门取代拉斯维加斯，成为世界顶级的赌博目的地。几年后，新加坡成功发展成一个新兴的赌博城市，并在世界顶级赌博目的地名单上排行第二。现在第三个亚洲赌博目的地柬埔寨的实力正在迅速上升，有可能跃上世界顶级赌博目的地名单的第四位。如果柬埔寨政府不对该国的赌博行业实行严管政策的话，我们很可能会看到这种情况发生。
几年前，柬埔寨开始调整该国的赌博行业。该国政府决定，向那些符合游戏公平性的，透明度高的赌场发放经营许可证。首相洪森所作出的决定，一方面使赌博业推动该国的经济增长，保持国家竞争力；另一方面，把赌博行业的收入投入到社会的各个领域，如卫生行业和教育行业等。
柬埔寨之所以有可能成为下一个澳门，还有一个重要原因是值得考虑的，那就是该国优越的地理位置。柬埔寨能满足泰国和越南赌徒的需求，因为它与这两个国家相邻。以泰国为例，有很多泰国赌徒前往中国澳门寻找赌博娱乐，但通常他们需要花不少时间在旅途上，如果柬埔寨建立现代化的赌场，那么可以减少泰国赌客前往赌场的时间。而且赌客们是一个相对安全的赌场环境娱乐，因为他们并没有违反任何当地法律。
柬埔寨政府已经发现了一种巧妙的方式来吸引这些玩家。它已制定了一套系统，使这些玩家们过海关时不需要护照，而玩家们可以随心所欲地访问没有任何边界问题的赌场。目前，在柬埔寨边境检查站附近已经兴建很多赌场。
柬埔寨将成为另一个澳门，这是有趣的，看看这个亚洲国家将如何继续发展赌博行业。
译文：
Cambodia: Is this the Next Macau?
A decade ago, nobody would have dreamed that Macau would overtake Las Vegas as the top gambling destination in the world, and a few years later, it was Singapore that slipped into second place on the list. Could a third Asian destination now be moving to bump Vegas into fourth place? If the government of Cambodia had any to do with it, we could very well see this happening.
A couple of years ago, Cambodia started regulating its gambling industry and the government decided to grant operating licenses only to those groups who met its high standards of fair gaming and transparency. Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen made a decision, on the one hand, to improve modern technology so that the gambling industry could advance and keep up with international competition and, on the other hand, direct all the revenues from the industry to areas in society who needed them most such as health and education.
There are a number of reasons why it is not impossible to consider Cambodia to be the next Macau – or at least a location that moves in its direction. Cambodia has the potential to meet the needs of Thai and Vietnamese gamblers as it shares a border with these two countries. Thailand, for example, has a significant group of rich ex-pat Chinese gamblers, who are unable to find what they are looking for in terms of gambling entertainment in their adopted country. As such, players are able to travel less than four hours and play at new, modern casinos build by Cambodia, safe in the knowledge that they are not breaking any local laws and putting themselves in line to win super cash prizes.
The Cambodian government has found another ingenious way in attracting these players. It has devised a system whereby they don’t require a passport to cross the border to play at the casinos. They simply apply for a one day pass and they’ll be able to visit the casinos without any border problems. Many casinos have been built near these border checkpoints, with ten at the checkpoint in Sa Kaeo alone.
It will be interesting to see how this Asian country will continue to develop its industry.