Just a short three hour flight from Macau sits Phnom Penh, where the Cambodian capital city’s only casino-resort has just doubled in size.
Naga2 is the latest addition to NagaWorld, once a floating casino on the Mekong River before moving to its current land-based location in 2006. When NagaWorld’s hotel opened more than a decade ago it brought with it around 700 hotel rooms, 200 gaming tables and over a thousand electronic gaming machines.
The new Naga2, which celebrated its opening with a glitzy ceremony in November, more than doubles all of those figures with its two towers adding another 1,000 hotel rooms, at least 300 more gaming tables and 2,500 slot machines across four main gaming levels and multiple VIP areas. The full complex is expected to reach 600 tables and more than 5,000 machines once final touches are complete – putting it on par with most of Macau’s famed integrated resorts.
The living areas of a Naga2 VIP suite
Naga2 splits its offerings into two distinct segments. On one side is the hotel tower where the vast majority of the property’s new hotel rooms can be found. From here guests can easily access Naga2’s main gaming areas, which boast a remarkable resemblance to the gaming floors found in Macau given the sea of baccarat tables on offer. Prices are similar too – “squeeze” games, which allow players to handle the cards themselves, start from minimum bets of US$100 with a minimum US$40 for cards dealt face up. Other games available include sic bo, roulette, blackjack, poker and Vietnamese favorites Bai Buu and Ngau Ham.
The second tower at Naga2 is the VIP tower, offering premium guests a truly luxurious experience via nine floors of suites with four suites per floor – two of which come with their very own private gaming room. The walls between the gaming areas on each floor can actually be removed, allowing guests to occupy an entire floor if they have the means and desire to do so.
More importantly, no matter whether guests stay in the VIP tower, the new hotel tower or the old NagaWorld complex, Naga2 provides a substantially expanded array of offerings.
Most notable is NagaCity Walk, an underground shopping area linking Naga1 with Naga2 and covering some 41,000 square meters – around 15 times more retail space than in the original complex. The vast majority of the stores in NagaCity Walk are duty free and include well-known duty free brands, high quality Cambodian products and international luxury brands.
Hall of Golden Chimes restaurant
Shopping aside, Naga2 adds an elegant Broadway style theater with 2,200 seats and a selection of new food and drink options including the fine dining Cantonese restaurant Hall of Golden Chimes, a noodle bar, 2Pangaea which boasts Indochina’s longest buffet and a food court.
Tastefully designed and decorated, public areas are dominated by gold and Khmer themes while motifs in VIP areas feature butterflies and lotus. It’s all part of the charm of this new addition to the Phnom Penh landscape which well and truly throws the challenge out to the very best on offer in Macau.
