Smoking Rules in Asian Casinos

Can you smoke in casinos in Asia?

The honest answer is: it depends entirely on where you are, and the rules have shifted a lot over the past decade. Asia has some of the strictest casino smoking rules in the world, and also some of the most relaxed, sometimes within a short flight of each other.

Here is the picture across the main destinations:

Macau, the region's biggest gambling city, sits at the strict end. A complete ban on smoking inside casinos has been in force since January 1, 2019¹. That was the end point of a long political fight that had earlier produced a partial ban, enclosed smoking lounges and heated arguments about VIP rooms, which we cover in the Macau sections below.

Singapore takes a middle path. The government lets gaming operators build indoor smoking rooms inside the casino, with smoking and non-smoking areas, so smokers have a place to go without leaving the building². If you want to compare the two Singapore properties in detail, see our Marina Bay Sands vs Resorts World Sentosa page.

South Korea is stricter at the table. Paradise City, the large integrated resort near Incheon airport, prohibits smoking at game tables and provides separate smoking booths instead³. You can read more about that property on our Paradise City Incheon page.

In India's Goa, the offshore and onshore casinos take a similar line. Big Daddy Casino says smoking is permitted but only in designated areas⁴, and Deltin's terms and conditions state the same: smoking is permitted in designated areas only⁶. Our Big Daddy vs Deltin Casinos in Goa comparison covers how the two operators differ otherwise.

Japan's newly legal casinos are being built with health controls baked in from the start. Under the national framework, when you enter or leave a casino gaming area, staff confirm your identity and that you are not a banned person using the My Number Card or an equivalent document⁷. Japan's casino rules are new enough that smoking policy is set venue by venue, so the specific property is the place to ask.

A note on vaping: the sources available treat "smoking" as the regulated activity, and in practice Asian casino rules that ban smoking generally treat e-cigarettes the same way, since the underlying smoking control laws cover them. If you vape, the designated-area rules apply to you too, and staff at the property can confirm what is allowed on the floor.

Macau: the main smoking rules for casino floors

Macau's smoking rules arrived in stages, and understanding the stages helps you make sense of what older travel reports say.

The first big change came in October 2014, when casinos in Macau, including MGM China, implemented a smoking ban that prohibits smoking on all mass market gaming floors⁸. The rules introduced on October 6 only permitted smoking in VIP rooms⁹. So from late 2014, the mass floor was smoke-free but the high-limit private rooms were not.

That split proved controversial. On the main floors, smoking was only allowed in enclosed smoking rooms that did not contain any gaming facilities¹⁰. Smokers had to physically leave the tables and machines and step into a sealed room, similar to the smoking lounges you find in airports.

The government then pushed for more. A government-backed draft bill spelled out a full smoking ban on gaming floors including VIP rooms, and the elimination of the smoking lounges on mass gaming floors¹¹. Industry figures pushed back hard: the boss of Suncity Group, then the biggest junket operator, argued the VIP sector was not replaceable and that a full smoking ban was worsening the drop in gaming revenue². There were also warnings that thousands of junket employees' jobs were under threat if the total ban went through¹². At one point casino stocks surged on reports the government might soften its smoking stance¹³, and the chief executive at the time publicly argued the gaming downturn was not driven by smoking policy¹⁴.

The strict version won. The full ban took effect on January 1, 2019, and smoking inside casinos, including VIP rooms, has been off limits since then¹. If you read a guide from before 2019 describing smoking lounges or VIP-room smoking in Macau, it is out of date.

Smoking lounges and ventilated rooms in Macau casinos

For most of the 2010s, the smoking lounge was the compromise that kept Macau's casinos running while the argument continued.

Under the rules in force after 2014, smoking was prohibited on the mass gaming floors of local casinos, and smokers could only smoke in smoking lounges¹⁴. These were not casual corners with an ashtray. The requirement was that smoking on the main floors was only allowed in enclosed smoking rooms that did not contain any gaming facilities¹⁰. No tables, no machines, no betting slips. You stepped out of the gaming area entirely, lit up in a sealed and ventilated room, and came back.

VIP rooms were the exception during this period: smoking was allowed there while the mass floors were covered by the ban¹¹. That exception was exactly what the later draft bill targeted, proposing to ban lighting up in VIP rooms while eliminating the airport-style smoking lounges then permitted on mass gaming floors¹³.

The practical effect for a visitor in that era was simple. A smoker playing at a mass-market table took cigarette breaks in the lounge. A smoker playing in a VIP room could light up at the table. Since 2019, neither is possible: the lounges are gone along with the VIP exception, and the whole question is settled in favor of clean air on the floor¹.

Singapore's version of the same idea survives. Gaming operators there were allowed to build indoor smoking rooms inside the casino, divided into smoking and non-smoking areas². So among the major destinations in the region, Singapore is currently the one where you can smoke inside the casino building without leaving it.

New casino smoking rules issued by the DICJ

The body behind Macau's casino rules is the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, almost always called the DICJ from its Portuguese initials. It regulates the casinos, and it is the authority that issues and enforces the smoking rules on the gaming floors.

The DICJ's rulebook covers more than smoking. One rule that catches visitors out: recording images or sound anywhere in a casino is banned, and so is using mobile phones or other communication devices at gaming tables and within three meters around them, unless the DICJ director gives permission¹⁵. If you want a cigarette and reach for your phone while standing near a table, you can be breaking two rules at once. Our casino photography and phone rules page covers this in detail across the region.

The DICJ also runs the self-exclusion system. If you ask for it yourself, or if your spouse, parents, children or second-degree collateral relatives make a request that you confirm, the Director of the DICJ may prohibit you from entering all or some of the casinos for a maximum period of two years¹⁶. On the application form, you choose the scope: all casinos of games of fortune, or only specified casinos, with the operators you want excluded from the ban left out¹⁷. This is a voluntary tool, and it applies to anyone who is not already legally barred from entering casinos.

The bureau also licenses the games themselves. Under the gaming law, electric or mechanical gaming machines, including slot machines, may be operated in casinos¹⁸, which is why the smoking rules have to cover the machine floors as well as the table areas.

Health measures at casino entry: tests, declarations and masks

Macau's casinos went through the pandemic earlier and more visibly than almost anywhere else, and the health measures they introduced shaped the entry experience for years.

In February 2020, the Macau government mandated a 15-day closure of all casinos¹⁹. When the doors reopened, the rules were strict. The local Health Bureau conducted mandatory tests for each visitor entering a casino, collected personal health declarations, carried out body-temperature checks, and required face masks on the gaming floor, on shuttle buses and in taxis²⁰. Gamblers were not allowed to stand or congregate, which changed the feel of the floors considerably²⁰.

From mid-2020, the formal requirements were that people wishing to visit Macao casinos had to provide a nucleic acid test certificate proving freedom from COVID-19 infection, undergo a body-temperature check, and present a valid green Macao Health Code result²¹.

The measures could follow you home, too. During an outbreak period in late October 2022, people who had spent more than half an hour in a casino on October 27 to 29 had their Macao Health Code turned yellow, and had to take one daily rapid antigen test with the result declared through the health code app, plus nucleic acid tests on days 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7. The code turned green again on day 8 after a negative day-7 test²².

These requirements have eased since the pandemic ended, but the episode is worth knowing about for two reasons. First, Macau has shown it can impose entry conditions on casino visitors quickly, and requirements can change fast during any health scare. Second, the temperature-check infrastructure is still in place at many properties, and casinos can still ask visitors to follow health rules as a condition of entry.

What visitors need to know before entering a Macau casino

Beyond smoking and health rules, Macau's casinos have a set of entry rules that are worth knowing before you walk in. The casinos are open 24 hours⁵, so these rules apply at any time of day or night.

Age comes first. Concessionaire workers supervising casino entry may request proof of age from anyone wishing to enter, and they can deny entry to anyone who refuses to show it²³. You do not have to hand over a full identity document for this; proof of age is enough, but without it you do not get in.

Certain people are barred from the gaming areas altogether. The list includes:

• People under 18
• Incapacitated persons
• Habitual gamblers declared insolvent
• Public administration staff
• Off-duty concessionaire employees
• Anyone who is drunk or under the influence of drugs²⁴

People carrying weapons, explosives or recording equipment are also banned from casinos¹⁸. Note the recording equipment point: it connects to the phone and camera ban near tables mentioned earlier, and professional camera gear falls squarely on the banned list.

The operators also have discretion. Concessionaires may bar persons they deem unsuitable from entering, or ask someone they consider unsuitable to leave, subject to a non-discrimination principle covering sex, race, nationality, residence, language or religion²⁴. In practice this is rarely an issue for ordinary visitors, but it is the legal basis on which a casino can refuse entry without giving a detailed reason.

For a first visit, the practical picture is simple. Bring proof of age. Smoking is not allowed anywhere inside the casino, including VIP rooms. Phones stay in your pocket near the tables, and photographing the floor is off limits. Dress is generally relaxed, though our casino dress codes page covers what occasionally gets refused. Smokers take their cigarette breaks outside the building, and anyone comparing destinations where lighting up is possible without leaving the property will find Singapore's indoor smoking rooms and Goa's designated areas as the current options in the region. For the wider picture of what you can play and where, see our guide to casinos in Asia.