Marina Bay Sands Casino

Who can enter: residents, foreigners and the 21-plus rule

Marina Bay Sands casino is open to all guests aged 21 or over. That age limit applies to everyone, whatever passport you hold, and it is checked at the door³. There is no separate rule for tourists, no members-only night, and no way around it.

The bigger difference is money, and it depends on your residency status rather than your nationality:

• Foreign visitors (tourists, business travelers, anyone in Singapore on a short visit) enter free. Show your passport at the entrance and you are in.
• Foreign residents living in Singapore on a work pass, employment pass, student pass or dependant pass also enter free. The levy is tied to citizenship and permanent residency, not to where you live.
• Singapore citizens and permanent residents pay the entry levy every time they want to go in, unless they hold an annual membership.

That last point catches people out. A British expat who has lived in Singapore for a decade still enters free. A Singaporean who has lived in London for twenty years still pays. The rule follows the person, not the address.

If you are a citizen or permanent resident and you want to bring a foreign friend along, your friend walks in free while you pay your levy at the counter. You both still need ID showing you are 21 or over.

Entry levy: S$100 a day or S$2,000 a year for locals

The entry levy is the single most important practical fact about this casino for anyone who is Singaporean or a permanent resident. You have two options⁴:

The daily levy runs in consecutive 24-hour blocks, not calendar days. If you pay at 8pm on a Friday, your levy covers you until 8pm on Saturday. Stay past that and you are overstaying, which carries its own penalty⁶.

The annual membership makes sense only if you plan to visit more than 20 times in a year. At S$100 a visit, 20 visits equals the S$2,000 annual fee. Below that, pay as you go.

The levy is paid to the casino operator, not to the government, and it is collected at the casino itself before you enter the gaming floor. Both Singapore casinos, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, charge the same levy, and a membership at one does not cover the other⁴.

One thing worth knowing: the levy is recorded against you personally, so it is not transferable and cannot be shared. If you are a citizen or permanent resident and you try to enter without paying, the casino operator is required to stop you⁵.

ID you need at the door

Bring photo ID. Which one depends on who you are:

• Foreign visitors and foreign residents: your passport. It proves both your age and your nationality, and it is the document staff expect to see.
• Singapore citizens and permanent residents: your NRIC. You will need it both to prove your age and to pay the entry levy, since the levy is recorded against your identity.

Staff can ask you to state your age, name and address, and to produce evidence that what you say is correct. If you fail to comply, or give false details, you can be fined up to S$10,000⁷. That is not a theoretical rule; it is the mechanism that makes the age and levy checks work.

If you are a foreign resident, carry your passport rather than relying on a work pass card. The passport is the document that settles both questions at once, and it avoids a conversation at the entrance.

Games on four floors: 600 tables and 3,000 machines

The casino spreads across four floors and is one of the largest gaming floors in the world¹. The headline numbers:

• About 600 table games
• 3,000 gaming machines
• More than 200 machine game titles, including video games, slots and multi-station games

Table games cover the classics: baccarat, roulette, sic bo, blackjack and poker¹. Baccarat is the dominant game in this part of the world, and you will find more baccarat tables here than anything else. If you have only played in Europe or North America, expect the floor to look different from what you are used to.

The casino's game rules are approved and published by Singapore's gambling regulator, and the approved list covers baccarat, blackjack and pontoon, dice games, poker, roulette, semi-automated electronic table games and other games⁸. That matters practically: the rules of each game are fixed and published, so if you think a hand was settled wrongly, there is a defined version of the rules to check against.

The 3,000 machines include video games, slots and multi-station games, with over 200 titles in rotation¹. Machine play is a good option if you want to sit down, set your own pace and not deal with a dealer or other players.

Chips, payments and the Sands Rewards Club

Table games at Marina Bay Sands are played with casino gaming chips, not cash on the felt. You buy chips at the table itself or at the casino cage¹. That is the standard flow:

1. Sit at a table and hand your cash to the dealer, who gives you chips, or
2. Go to the casino cage, buy chips there, and take them to the table.

Machines take cash or tickets in the usual way. If you are not sure how a particular machine or table works, ask staff before you put money down; they are used to first-timers.

The Sands Rewards Club is the casino's loyalty program. Members earn Sands Points and Sands Dollars on casino games¹. Points and dollars accumulate as you play and can be used within the resort. If you plan to play more than casually, joining costs nothing and takes a few minutes at the rewards desk.

One practical warning that surprises people: casino chips are not a currency you can walk out with freely. Taking chips outside the casino gaming area is prohibited⁹, and there is a specific rule against using casino chips for any purpose other than gaming. Using chips for something else carries a fine of up to S$10,000, imprisonment for up to 12 months, or both¹⁰.

Dress code and house rules inside the casino

Marina Bay Sands does not publish a formal dress code for the casino, and in practice the floor is relaxed. Smart casual is the safe default: closed shoes, a shirt, no swimwear. Singapore is hot and humid, and plenty of visitors arrive in what they wore out to dinner.

The house rules that matter most are the ones with penalties attached:

• Age. You must be 21 or over. If you are under 21 and you enter, remain, or take part in gaming, you can be fined up to S$1,500⁶.
• ID checks. Refusing to state your age, name and address, or failing to produce evidence, carries a fine of up to S$10,000⁷.
• Levy overstay. If you are a citizen or permanent resident and you stay past your paid period, the fine is up to S$1,000, and you still owe the levy for the overstay period⁶.
• Chips. Do not take chips out of the gaming area, and do not use them for anything other than gaming¹⁰.

Smoking inside the casino follows Singapore's general indoor smoking rules, with designated areas on the floor. If you are unsure where you may smoke, ask staff rather than guessing.

Penalties for players: fines, overstaying and prize forfeiture

Most visitors never run into any of this, but the rules are enforced and the fines are real. The ones a normal player could trip over:

• Under 21 in the casino: fine up to S$1,500⁶.
• Refusing an ID or age check: fine up to S$10,000⁷.
• Overstaying a paid levy period: fine up to S$1,000 plus the levy owed for the extra time⁶.
• Misusing casino chips: fine up to S$10,000, up to 12 months in prison, or both¹⁰.

There is also a broader rule that applies across Singapore: gambling with an unlicensed operator, or being in an unlawful gambling place, carries a fine of up to S$10,000, up to 6 months in prison, or both¹¹. That is the rule that covers offshore casino websites and unlicensed rooms, and it is the reason to keep your play inside the two licensed casinos.

Prize forfeiture is the practical consequence people forget. If you are found to have breached the entry rules, any winnings from that play are at risk, and the fines stack on top. The cleanest approach is simple: bring the right ID, pay the levy if it applies to you, and stay within the period you paid for.

The S$10,000-a-day limit on swapping chips between casinos

This is the rule most likely to catch a big player off guard. Singapore casinos are prohibited from issuing casino chips paid for with another casino operator's chips where the aggregate value is equal to or exceeds S$10,000 in a single business day¹⁰. In plain terms, you cannot walk from one casino to the other and convert a large stack of chips across the counter.

The related rule is that taking chips outside the casino gaming area is prohibited⁹. Chips are for play inside the gaming area, not for carrying around the resort or off the property.

If you win big, the practical path is to cash your chips in at the casino cage before you leave the gaming area, and to deal with the currency and transfer questions there. Do not plan to carry a large chip stack out of the building, and do not plan to swap chips between the two Singapore casinos.

Getting there and what to expect on the day

Marina Bay Sands sits on Bayfront Avenue, on the Marina Bay waterfront. The casino is inside the same complex as the hotel towers, the SkyPark, the shopping mall and the theaters, so you will not be walking far from anywhere in the resort.

The casino operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year². There is no opening time to plan around and no last entry. Dining inside the complex also runs 24 hours, from casual light meals to fine dining¹, so you can eat at 3am if that is when you finish playing.

A simple first visit looks like this:

1. Arrive at the casino entrance with your passport or NRIC.
2. If you are a Singapore citizen or permanent resident, go to the entry levy counter and pay S$100 for 24 hours, or present your annual membership.
3. Show your ID at the entrance. Staff check your age and, for citizens and permanent residents, that your levy is paid.
4. Walk onto the gaming floor. Buy chips at a table or the cage, or sit at a machine.
5. When you finish, cash in your chips at the cage before leaving the gaming area.

If you are visiting Singapore and want to compare the two licensed casinos before you decide, the casinos in Singapore guide covers who can go in at each. If the levy is the part you want to understand properly, the casino entry levy page walks through who pays and how much. And if you want to know what is actually playable on the floor, casino games at Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa breaks down the tables and machines at both.

For a wider view of what gambling is and is not allowed across the country, start with can I gamble in Singapore.