Casinos in China

Casinos in China: the picture at a glance

If you are looking for a casino in China, the short version is this: there are none in the mainland, and there are a great many in Macau. Macau, a special administrative region of China and a former Portuguese colony handed back in 1999, is the only place in the country where casino gambling is legal¹. It is not a small operation either. Macau has been described as the world's biggest gambling hub, bigger than Las Vegas, and it is the only place in China where citizens can legally gamble in a casino⁵.

So the practical answer to "are there casinos in China?" is yes, but all of them are in one city. Mainland China itself, from Beijing to Shanghai to Hainan, has no licensed casinos, and there is no such thing as a Hainan casino despite the island's resort reputation. Gambling has been outlawed on the Chinese mainland since the Communist Party took power in 1949⁶. What the mainland does have is a small number of legal poker clubs, which we cover below, and state-run lotteries, which are a separate world entirely and covered on our China lottery pages.

For most readers the real question is one of three: can I play in Macau, what is there to play, and what about online. This page covers all three.

Who can actually walk in and play

The entry rules in Macau are refreshingly simple, and this is one of the few gambling destinations in Asia where they are the same for everyone:

This matters more than it might sound. Several nearby countries run casinos for foreigners only. South Korea has 17 casinos, of which 16 admit foreigners only². Singapore's two casinos let international visitors in free with just a passport, but charge locals an entry fee⁷. Macau has no such split: mainland Chinese and Macao citizens enter and play freely, and so do foreign visitors². If you are a foreigner living or traveling in China, Macau is the one place in the country where you can sit at a casino table without any special status.

One caveat on the mainland side. While no rule in Chinese law explicitly forbids gambling in a foreign country, Chinese authorities have warned that citizens taking part in cross-border gambling may be suspected of violating Chinese law even when the overseas casino is legally operated⁸. That warning is aimed at organized gambling trips and junkets rather than ordinary tourists, but it is worth knowing the official position exists. Our page on gambling trips abroad from China goes into this in more detail.

Where Chinese players can gamble: Macau and beyond

Macau is the headline, but it helps to see the full map of options for someone based in China.

Macau. The only place in China where gambling is legal². A special administrative region of China, reached by ferry or helicopter from Hong Kong or by land from Zhuhai, with dozens of casinos ranging from small gaming halls to enormous integrated resorts. Mainland Chinese and Macao citizens may enter and play freely¹, which is what makes the city the natural casino destination for Chinese players.

Legal poker clubs on the mainland. Gambling in China is absolutely illegal, but there is a narrow exception in practice: a small number of legal poker clubs, sometimes called Chinese Sports Poker clubs, exist in cities like Beijing and Sanya¹⁰. Foreigners and Chinese are both allowed to enter, though foreigners must register with a passport. The catch is that payouts are made in points or tickets, not cash, so these are competition venues rather than casinos in any real sense¹⁰. Our poker in China page covers them in detail.

Nearby countries. For players willing to leave China, the nearest real alternatives are Singapore and South Korea. Singapore's casinos admit foreign visitors free with a passport². South Korea's 17 casinos include 16 that welcome foreigners only, with resorts like Shinhwa World on Jeju offering 154 tables and 239 gaming machines². Further afield, Thailand has been reconsidering legalizing casinos, and Macau operator Galaxy has publicly eyed Thailand for a world-class entertainment complex, though nothing is open there yet⁷.

Online. Online gambling is banned in China, and authorities have warned that even small bets are illegal¹³. We come back to what actually exists online further down, because the reality is more complicated than the ban suggests.

Macau: games on offer and why baccarat dominates

Walk into any large Macau casino and the first thing you will notice is the noise of baccarat: rows of tables, crowds standing behind seated players, and the ritual squeeze of the cards. Baccarat continues to be the most popular game in Macau by a long stretch, followed by slot machines, then blackjack and roulette³.

The preference is cultural and long-standing. Chinese gamblers favor games like baccarat over poker and blackjack¹⁴, and baccarat is especially popular among high-rollers and Asian gamblers generally. In Macau it is not just popular, it is extremely dominant¹⁵.

The dominance goes further than most visitors expect. In Macau's VIP rooms, baccarat is typically the only game offered, no matter how extensive and personalized the service around it is¹⁶. If you are playing in a VIP setting, you are playing baccarat.

Why baccarat? A few reasons come through in how the game works:

• It is a simple game that suits players who want action without strategy, and Chinese gamblers favor it over games like poker and blackjack¹⁵
• It is especially popular among high-rollers and Asian gamblers, and in Macau it is extremely dominant¹⁶
• It fits the high-stakes culture of Macau's VIP rooms, where baccarat is typically the only game offered and is the preferred game among Chinese players¹⁶

Beyond baccarat, the big resorts offer plenty: slot machines are the second-largest category by popularity³, and blackjack and roulette follow. Individual properties are covered on their own pages, including Galaxy Macau, City of Dreams Macau, Grand Lisboa, MGM Macau and MGM Cotai.

How many venues there are and how they are counted

Counting "casinos in China" depends on what you count, and the numbers vary wildly depending on the source and the definition.

In Macau, the count is of licensed casino properties, large resort casinos operated under government concession by a handful of companies. Sands China, one of the concessionaires, describes Macao as the only location in China offering legalized casino gaming¹⁷. The venue count in Macau is in the dozens, and it is the only number that refers to legal, land-based casinos in China.

In independent online listings, the counting is entirely different. These sites count online casinos that accept registrations from a given country, not buildings. One well-known review site currently shows 642 casinos found for players from China⁴. That number has nothing to do with Macau's licensed properties; it is a count of offshore websites.

On the sites themselves, the counting is different again, and much bigger, because they count individual games. Stake advertises 6,000+ casino games to explore on its casino page¹⁸, and its full casino lobby runs to tens of thousands of game entries¹⁹. 1win lists over 13,000 games from licensed providers²⁰. So the same question produces answers of "dozens" (Macau properties), "642" (offshore sites accepting Chinese players) or "thousands" (games on a single site), depending on what is being counted.

For comparison, the same review site counts around 80 online casinos catering to players from Singapore that offer Visa Debit²¹, and 808 casinos for players from South Korea offering Bitcoin²². The China number is by far the largest, which reflects how many offshore operators target Chinese-speaking players.

Casinos accepting players from China: what independent listings show

The 642 figure comes from an independent review site that filters its listings to operators accepting players from China⁴. Names that appear in that filtered list include Bitstarz, Betandyou, Dafabet and Sportsbet.io⁴.

It is worth being clear about what this list is and is not:

• It is a list of offshore websites, none licensed in China, since online gambling is banned there¹³
• It reflects the operators' own acceptance policies, not any Chinese authorization
• The practical risk is real: hefty fines and imprisonment are among the risks that go along with gambling online from China⁴

The scale of the underground market is not small. One Chinese official investigation described a gambling website, Dafa 888, that was entirely in Simplified Chinese and required gamblers to remit funds from bank cards within China⁹. Another case involved a site recruiting mainland Chinese citizens as members²³. Foreign operators have also targeted the country: bet365 built one of the most successful online gambling services accessible from inside China despite betting being outlawed there in all but a few controlled scenarios²⁴. As one China law blog puts it, online gambling is illegal in China but everywhere, and the Chinese gambler who wants to bet online has to find a site written in Chinese and focused on mainland bettors²⁵.

Our online gambling in China page covers this world in detail, including payments and the risks, and our gambling payments in China page explains how money actually moves.

Where to go from here

If you are planning a trip, start with Macau. It is the only legal casino destination in the country, open to mainland Chinese, Macau residents and foreigners alike, and baccarat is the game to know before you walk in². Our individual casino pages, including StarWorld Hotel and Casino and the SJM Resorts properties, cover entry rules, games and getting there for each venue.

If you are staying on the mainland, your legal options are the state lotteries, covered in our guides to Double Color Ball, Super Lotto and the other games, plus the small number of legal poker clubs¹⁰. Traditional games like mahjong, pai gow and dou dizhu are played everywhere socially and have their own pages.

For the wider picture, see our guides to gambling in China overall, gambling laws in China, and gambling in China as a visitor.