Macau Casino Games

Macau is the biggest casino market on earth, and the range of games on the floor reflects that. Beyond the baccarat tables that fill most of the main gaming halls, you will find blackjack, roulette, sic bo and a set of games with deep local roots that you simply will not encounter in Las Vegas or Singapore. This page walks through what is on offer, how each game works and what it pays, so you can walk into any casino on the Cotai Strip or the peninsula knowing what you are looking at. For the venues themselves, see casinos in Macau, and for the wider picture including lottery and sports betting, see gambling in Macau.

Games permitted in Macau casinos

Macau law fixes the list of games of fortune that casinos may operate, and it is a longer and more varied list than most visitors expect. There are 24 approved games: baccarat; "railway" baccarat (chemin de fer); blackjack, also called twenty-one; twenty-five doors; craps; sic bo; twelve numbers; fan tan; a dice game called 掷牛; fish-prawn-crab sic bo; Chinese poker with thirteen cards; mahjong; mahjong baccarat; mahjong pai gow; pinball machines; pai gow; small pai gow; fu gui san gong; five-card poker; roulette; eleven- or twelve-card betting; neuf galets; Taiwan pai gow; and san gong baccarat¹.

Alongside the table games, casinos may also operate electric or mechanical gaming machines, including slot machines⁶. The slot floors, often run as separate slot machine centers, carry the newest machine games in a comfortable setting and generally have 24-hour coffee shops and food service attached⁷.

A few of the games on that list have since been given their own official rulebooks under slightly different names. Fortune 3 Card Poker, Three Card Baccarat, Dragon-Phoenix and Super Pan 9 all appear in the regulator's published rules and are covered in detail below. Others, such as fan tan and pai gow, are covered on our traditional Chinese games page, and mahjong has its own page too.

Baccarat and the classic table games

Baccarat is the game of Macau. It fills more tables than everything else combined, and it is typically the only game offered in VIP rooms, where it is also the preferred game among Chinese players². The rules are simple: there are only two sides, "Banker" and "Player," and you bet on which one will end up closer to nine. Face cards, tens and two-card totals of ten all count as zero, and nine is the highest possible hand⁸. The game uses six to twelve decks of 52 cards each, dealt from a shoe⁸. For a full walkthrough, see our baccarat in Macau page.

Blackjack, or twenty-one, is widely available and works the way you know from anywhere else, with a Macau twist in the side bets. One official variant pays a special prize of three times your stake if your first cards are a suited 6, 7 and 8, or three 7s, even if the dealer's face-up card is an Ace⁹. We cover the full game on our blackjack in Macau page.

Sic bo, the three-dice game, is a Macau staple. The totals bets show how steep the payouts can get: a bet on a total of 4 or 17 pays 50 to 1, while totals of 9, 10, 11 and 12 pay 6 to 1¹⁰. See our sic bo page for the full betting layout.

Fortune 3 Card Poker: how the table works

Fortune 3 Card Poker is Macau's approved version of three card poker, and it is one of the easiest table games to learn. The concept is the same as the international game: whoever has the higher three-card hand, dealer or player, wins¹¹. The dealer gives three cards to each player and to themselves, all dealt face down¹¹.

Each table has six to eight positions, one of which belongs to the dealer, so five to seven players can be seated at once³. In front of each seat are three betting areas: Pair Plus nearest the dealer, the Ante in the middle, and the raise farthest out, with a fourth area for side bets where they are offered⁵.

The table uses one deck of 52 cards, a dealing shoe and a cut card, plus an automatic shuffling machine³. Three cards are dealt to every betting position and three to the dealer⁵.

A few rules keep the table orderly:

• You must bet within the posted table minimum and maximum³.
• You may only bet at the seat you occupy, and you may not bet at more than one position through other people³.
• Once the dealer deals the first card of a round, no more bets are accepted³.

If you placed an Ante and want to stay in the hand, you must raise by an amount equal to your Ante; if you do not, you forfeit the Ante³. The dealer then needs a hand of Q or higher to "qualify." If the dealer's hand is lower than Q, you are paid even money on the Ante and your raise is returned. With Q or higher, the hand plays out and the higher hand wins⁵.

A round is declared void, with all bets returned, if the dealing rules are breached or if the dealer's or a player's cards are accidentally exposed; a malfunctioning shuffler also ends the round with a reshuffle³.

Fortune 3 Card Poker bets and payouts

There are two base bets and two side bets. The Ante and the Pair Plus are the base bets; the Six Card Bonus and the Progressive Jackpot are side bets, and the casino may not run the side bets on their own without the base bets³. Concessionaires must at least offer the base bets to players³.

The Pair Plus pays on the quality of your own three cards, regardless of what the dealer holds³:

If the dealer qualifies and your hand is higher, the Ante and the raise are both paid at 1 to 1³. On top of that, an Ante bonus is paid regardless of whether the hand continues: 5 to 1 for a straight flush, 4 to 1 for three of a kind and 1 to 1 for a straight³.

The Six Card Bonus combines five of the six cards in play, your three and the dealer's three, into the highest possible hand³. Its payouts are steep at the top³:

The Progressive Jackpot pays a fixed prize or a share of the jackpot pool, whichever is higher: a royal flush pays the fixed prize or 100% of the pool; a straight flush pays the fixed prize or 10% of the pool; four of a kind, full house and flush pay fixed prizes. If several players hit a straight flush in the same round, each receives 10% of the pool or the fixed prize, whichever is higher. The pool decreases by the payout ratio and, once fully paid out, starts accumulating again from its minimum amount³.

Three Card Baccarat rules and payouts

Three Card Baccarat is a compact cousin of baccarat played with three cards per position. Court cards (K, Q, J) and 10 count as zero. The best possible hand is three court cards, called "three court cards" or 三公; every other hand ranks by the sum of its three cards' points, subtracting 10 or 20 if the total goes over, with nine the highest point total. The full ranking runs through 31 combinations from three court cards down through double court, single court and no court variants of each point total from nine to zero⁹.

You can bet on multiple positions at once, but during play you may not change position, leave the table holding cards, or hold another position's cards⁹. Your three-card combination simply needs to beat the dealer's to win⁹.

The payouts are⁹:

Winning bets on beating the dealer or on odd/even pay 1 to 1, and the house takes a 5 percent commission on those wins⁹. Three court cards in your hand pay 16 to 1, a points hand pays 8 to 1, and a tie with the dealer pays 20 to 1⁹. You can bet on multiple positions at once, but once play begins you may not change position, leave the table holding your cards, or hold another position's cards⁹.

The dealing ritual is part of the experience. The dealer shuffles, a player cuts with a white card (the dealer cuts if nobody does), and with multiple decks a second white card is inserted between 30 and 40 cards from the end. The dealer burns a number of cards equal to the number of decks, then deals three face-down cards to each position clockwise, taking their own last⁹. When using the shoe, one card is burned before each round after the first; when the white card appears, that is the last round before a reshuffle⁹. If the dealing order is found to be wrong, the cards are corrected in sequence, and if that is impossible, all dealt cards are voided. An accidentally exposed card stays valid and the round continues⁹.

Roulette: European and American wheels

Roulette in Macau comes in the two versions you would expect: the European wheel with a single zero and the American wheel with a double zero. The European version is still offered in many casinos as an alternative to the American one¹². The betting layout is the same in both, and the game is the only one on the Macau list where the wheel, not cards or dice, decides everything.

The table is worth a moment of watching before you play. After the ball lands, the table is "frozen," meaning you cannot touch your chips until the croupier has finished paying out to all the winners¹².

Roulette bets, payouts and the zero rule

The betting menu in Macau's official roulette rules covers every standard chance: single numbers, two numbers on the split line, three numbers in a row, four numbers in a square, six, nine and twelve numbers, and the eighteen-number even chances such as even, odd, low 1-18, high 19-36, red and black⁴.

The payouts follow the classic ladder¹⁴:

In short, inside bets have lower odds but much higher payouts, as high as 35 to 1, while outside bets have better odds but lower payouts of even money or 2 to 1¹⁴.

The zero rule is where the two wheels differ, and it matters to your wallet. Under Macau's official rules, when 0 comes up, bets on 0 win and all other bets lose to the house⁴. On even-chance bets, some rules give you a choice: you may withdraw half your stake, with the other half going to the table, or leave the whole stake for the next spin¹³. On the American wheel, when zero or double zero comes out, all even-chance bets and all multiple chances that do not include the zero lose outright⁴.

Dragon-Phoenix: the local token game

Dragon-Phoenix is the most local game on the list and the one most likely to stop visitors in their tracks. It is played on a circular table with player seats around the edge and seats in the center for the dealer and the spinner. Betting positions are marked for Dragon, Phoenix and "5 odds," and the equipment is simple: a set of five tokens, a wooden board for throwing them, and indicator signs showing who spins first¹⁵.

Each token has Dragon on one side and Phoenix on the other, of equal value. Two Dragons up is Dragon, two Phoenixes up is Phoenix, and one of each is "odd"¹⁵.

The procedure is theatrical. The boxer, the dealer in charge of the game, leads the spinner into the circle. The spinner chooses two of the five tokens, places them on the board and throws them, then both the spinner and the boxer bet on the marked positions. The spinner chooses Dragon or Phoenix and makes three throws to decide the outcome; throwing Dragon then Phoenix loses, and throwing 5 odds also loses¹⁵.

Players around the edge bet on Dragon, Phoenix or 5 odds before the tokens are thrown, within the table's posted minimum and maximum limits. The spinner must bet on Dragon or Phoenix. Once the dealer announces betting closed, no further bets are accepted and stakes cannot be changed or removed¹⁵.

The payouts are¹⁵:

A table may have up to 30 seats or standing positions for players, and three dealers run it: two basic dealers and the boxer, who handles payouts and collects bets¹⁵.

Not every throw counts. A throw is invalid if the tokens are not thrown to a height accepted by the boxer or floor inspector, if they do not achieve the required rotation in the air, if either or both tokens come to rest outside the circle even if they roll back inside, if a token is deflected off a person or object, if the tokens are not lying flat when they stop, or if the spinner's body is not fully inside the circle when throwing¹⁵.

Super Pan 9 and other card games

Super Pan 9 is a blackjack-like card game with a twist in the deck. The shoe holds eight standard packs of 52 cards with all the sevens, eights, nines and tens removed, leaving 288 cards¹⁶. Picture cards count as zero, and the value of a hand is the ones column of the total, so a hand totaling 19 is worth 9¹⁶.

The house dealer deals three cards to each player, including the player/dealer, and each player then has the chance to draw one additional card¹⁶. If you ask for help playing a hand, the house way is simple: draw on 5 or less, stand on 6 or more¹⁶. The player/dealer position is always seats 1, 9 and 17, regardless of how many players are seated, and a player/dealer partnership may consist of no more than three active players at the same time¹⁶.

The rest of the approved list covers games with their own dedicated pages: poker in Macau for the poker variants, slot machines in Macau for the machine floors, and fan tan, pai gow and the traditional Chinese games for the games that predate the casino resorts by a century.

Practical details: hours, table limits and conduct

Macau casinos never close. Each casino must operate continuously, 24 hours a day, every day of the year⁵, and the official tourism guidance confirms the casinos are open around the clock⁷. Wynn Macau, for example, advertises 24-hour gaming with a variety of games including private gaming salons, a Sky Casino and a poker area¹⁷. The only interruptions in recent memory came from government-mandated closures and capacity limits during the pandemic period, when casinos briefly reopened with staffing caps¹⁸.

Table limits are posted at each table, and every bet must sit within them³. Minimums vary widely by venue and by game: expect the main-floor baccarat tables at the big Cotai resorts to carry higher minimums than the smaller peninsula casinos, and VIP salons to be in a different league entirely. If you are playing at a specific property, our venue pages, such as The Venetian Macao and MGM Cotai, cover what is on each floor.

A few conduct rules apply across the games and are worth knowing before your first visit:

• At Fortune 3 Card Poker, players are prohibited from recording results, predicting outcomes or devising betting strategies, leaving the table mid-round, revealing their cards, or disclosing the dealer's cards to influence betting decisions³.
• At Three Card Baccarat, you may not change position during play, leave the table holding cards, or hold another position's cards⁹.
• At Dragon-Phoenix, once betting is announced closed, stakes cannot be changed or removed¹⁵.

For who may enter and play, see casino entry rules in Macau; visitors and residents face different requirements. For how to get your money in and out, see money and payments at Macau casinos, and for help with gambling problems, see gambling help in Macau.