Can You Take Photos or Use Your Phone in a Casino? Rules Across Asia

Where photography is banned: the general rule across Asian casinos

Walk into almost any casino floor in Asia and the default is the same: cameras away, phones away, and no recording of any kind. The gaming area is treated as a private space with its own rules, and those rules are enforced by staff who watch for exactly this.

Macau is the clearest example, and it is the market most visitors to the region will meet first. Recording images or sound anywhere inside a casino is banned, and so is using a mobile phone or other communication device at gaming tables and within three meters around them. The only way around it is permission from the director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau¹. That is a narrow exception, not something a normal visitor will get.

Macau goes further at the door. Anyone carrying equipment whose main purpose is recording images or sound, or which has no other significant use besides recording, can be refused entry unless the concessionaire permits it². In practice that covers a camera bag, a camcorder or a dedicated audio recorder. A phone in your pocket is not treated as recording equipment for entry purposes, but the moment you point it at a table you are in breach of the in-casino rule.

The same principle shows up in the list of people barred from Macau gaming areas, which includes anyone carrying weapons, explosives or recording devices⁶. Casinos in Macau are open 24 hours⁷, so there is no quiet hour when the rules relax. If you want a photo of your trip, take it outside, in the hotel lobby, or in the restaurants and shopping areas that sit alongside the floor.

Macau: photography and video recording banned inside, security may demand deletion

The practical version of the Macau rule is simple. Inside the casino, no photos and no video. If a security officer sees you filming or photographing, expect to be approached, asked to stop, and asked to delete what you shot. The rule is written as a ban on recording images or sound anywhere in the casino, with the narrow permission exception already noted¹.

This applies to everyone: visitors, foreign residents and locals alike. Macau does not split the rule by nationality. What does differ by person is age and status at the door. You must be 21 to enter a casino in Macau, and anyone under 21 is not allowed in⁷. Separately, the gaming rooms and zones are closed to under-18s under the gaming law⁸, so the practical entry age you will be checked against is 21.

Macau also keeps a list of people who cannot enter gaming areas at all. It includes people who are incapacitated, quasi-prohibited persons, undischarged bankrupts held responsible for their position, public administration staff unless authorized or on duty, off-duty casino employees, people who are intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, and anyone carrying weapons, explosives or recording equipment⁹. If you are turned away, it will usually be about age, intoxication or what you are carrying, not about your passport.

One more thing worth knowing before you plan a trip around filming: online casino gaming is not authorized in Macau, and no online gaming of any kind has been approved¹⁰. So there is no licensed Macau operator whose tables you could stream or photograph remotely either.

Live streaming is not allowed at Macau gaming tables

Streaming from a Macau table is not a gray area. The ban on using a mobile phone or other communication device at gaming tables and within three meters of them covers exactly the behavior a streamer would need: a phone in hand, pointed at the table, connected to the outside world¹. Add the ban on recording images or sound anywhere in the casino, and there is no version of live streaming from the floor that fits inside the rules.

The reason the three-meter zone matters is practical. It means you cannot stand just behind the player at the table and film over their shoulder, and you cannot sit at an adjacent slot machine and point a phone back at the table. If you want to make content about baccarat, blackjack or sic bo, film it somewhere else and describe the game rather than showing a live table.

For anyone who wants to understand what is actually being played before they arrive, the games themselves are covered elsewhere: baccarat rules, blackjack rules and sic bo rules explain the play without needing a camera on the floor.

Kangwon Land: photography prohibited and electronics must be deposited at the front desk

Kangwon Land is the one casino in South Korea where Korean nationals can enter alongside foreign visitors¹². It sits in Sabuk-eup, Jeongseon County, Gangwon Province, and it is the largest casino in the country, with about 13,000 pyeong of casino space¹⁴. It opened on October 28, 2000, and was fully renovated on March 28, 2003 as a hotel casino with a 477-room first-class hotel¹⁵.

The photography rule here is strict and it comes with a physical step. Photography is prohibited inside, and electronics must be deposited at the front desk. That means you hand over cameras and similar devices before you go in and collect them when you leave. Do not plan on keeping a camera in your bag for a quick shot of the floor.

Entry rules at Kangwon Land are tighter than at most Asian casinos, and they differ by who you are:

• Minimum age is 20, judged by your birthday at the time of entry³.
• Entry is barred for minors under 20, local residents, and people subject to entry restrictions, and ID is checked at the door³.
• Korean nationals need a resident registration card or driver's license. A passport alone is not accepted as ID for nationals, because it does not confirm residence³.
• Intoxicated visitors are absolutely barred from entry³.
• Foreign passport holders and Korean citizens with overseas permanent residence under the Overseas Emigration Act are exempt from the entry tax, but must show a passport. A driver's license is not accepted for the exemption³.

The entry levy, where it applies, is made up of the following components³.

Opening hours are 12:00 to 06:00 the next day³. The casino is open all year without holidays¹², parking is available¹⁶, and the main switchboard is +82-1588-7789, with a security situation team on +82-033-590-6255³.

If you are comparing this with the foreigner-only casinos elsewhere in Korea, the difference is who may walk in. Kangwon Land takes both Koreans and foreigners¹⁴. The Jeju and Seoul foreigner-only rooms do not.

Paradise City: photos allowed at the entrance only

Korea's foreigner-only casinos are a different category, and the photography rule follows the same shape: no shooting on the floor, but the entrance and public areas are fair game for a quick picture.

Paradise Casino Jeju Grand is a foreigners-only casino inside the Maison Glad hotel¹⁷. The Hyatt Regency casino on Jeju is also for foreigners only¹⁹. Paradise City in Incheon is open to foreign nationals and overseas permanent residents only, and Korean nationals are barred from entry²⁰. If you hold a Korean passport, none of these rooms will let you in, whatever your camera situation.

For visitors who qualify, the practical routine is the same as anywhere else in the region. Take your photos at the entrance, in the lobby and in the restaurants and bars. Put the phone away before you step onto the gaming floor. If you want to know what is inside before you go, the individual venue pages cover entry and rules: Paradise Casino Jeju Grand, Paradise City Incheon and Paradise Casino Walkerhill Seoul.

The Grand Casino Ho Tram: recording strictly restricted in gaming areas

Vietnam's casino rules on recording are strict in the gaming areas, and the country also has rules aimed at keeping play orderly. Players at a Vietnamese casino may not use the results of games at the casino to bet directly with each other, and may not cause insecurity, disorder or social safety problems at the casino⁵.

For The Grand Ho Tram specifically, recording is strictly restricted in the gaming areas. Treat the floor the same way you would treat Macau: no photos, no video, no phone pointed at a table. The public areas of the resort, the restaurants and the beach are separate from the gaming floor and are where you take your pictures.

Vietnam is also a market where the casino itself is a licensed, limited thing. Casino facilities are limited to one per integrated resort district²¹. That matters for planning: you will not find a cluster of competing casino floors in one Vietnamese city the way you will in Macau.

If you are working out whether you can play at all, the entry rules for Vietnamese players are their own subject, covered on the Vietnam country page and on The Grand Ho Tram Casino page.

Big Daddy Casino: where you can and cannot shoot

Big Daddy Casino in Goa is the most generous of the casinos covered here, because it spells out exactly where a camera is fine. Photography is allowed except on the casino floors and VIP gaming areas⁴. The places where you can shoot are:

• Aish O Rum, the Level 4 restaurant⁴.
• High Tide, the sun deck and bar⁴.
• A designated area on Level 2 outside the gaming area⁴.

That gives you a clear plan. Eat, drink and take your photos in those three spots, then put the camera away before you walk onto the floor. The VIP gaming areas are off limits for photography in the same way the main floor is⁴.

Two other practical points about Big Daddy. Smoking is permitted, but only in designated areas⁴. And the list of electronics you are exempted from depositing includes laptops, power banks, DSLR cameras, Go Pro cameras and handheld cameras⁴. That exemption is about what you may keep with you, not about where you may use it. A DSLR in your bag is fine; a DSLR pointed at a table is not.

If you are choosing between Goa's casinos, Big Daddy vs Deltin Casinos in Goa compares them, and Deltin Casinos in Goa: Entry and Chip Charges covers the other main operator.

Why casinos restrict phones and cameras: surveillance, privacy and scams

The reasons are practical rather than mysterious, and they apply across the region.

The first is surveillance and game integrity. Casinos run their own camera systems and count on knowing exactly what is happening at every table. A player filming a table, or streaming it, creates a second record that the casino does not control. In Macau the rule is written tightly enough to cover phones within three meters of a table, which is precisely the distance from which someone could film a hand, a shoe or a dealer's procedure¹.

The second is privacy. Players at a table have not agreed to appear in someone else's video. That is why the bans are usually written as bans on recording images or sound anywhere in the casino, not just at the tables¹. It is also why Macau refuses entry to people carrying recording equipment unless the concessionaire allows it².

The third is scams and cheating. A phone at a table can be a communication device, and a communication device at a table is a way to pass information. That is the logic behind banning phones and other communication devices at tables and in the three-meter ring around them¹.

The fourth is that casinos already run their own identity and access controls, and phones and cameras complicate them. In France, access to gaming rooms is subject to systematic identity control to identify and refuse minors and people banned from gambling, and anyone in the rooms must prove identity or face expulsion²². French casinos must also offer clients a voluntary limitation of access, either limiting the number of entries or suspending access for up to a year²². Singapore goes further in a different direction: family members of problem and pathological gamblers can ask casino staff to refuse that person entry, Singapore citizens face restrictions on using credit cards, promissory notes and borrowing from casinos, and local media are banned from carrying gambling advertising²³.

None of this is about spoiling your trip. It is about the fact that a casino floor is a controlled space, and a phone or camera is the one object that lets an outsider record and transmit what happens inside it. Once you know that, the rules are easy to follow: shoot in the restaurants, the bars, the lobby and the entrance, and leave the phone in your pocket on the floor.