Gambling in Macau for Tourists

What awaits you in Macau's casinos

Macau's casino floors run on baccarat, and lots of it, but the menu on offer is far wider than most visitors expect: Chinese table games like fan tan and pai gow sit alongside the international staples, and slot machines fill dedicated areas. The law permits 24 games of fortune in casinos, including baccarat, railway baccarat, blackjack, craps, sic bo, fan tan, fish-prawn-crab sic bo, thirteen-card poker, mahjong, pai gow, five-card poker, roulette and more⁵. If you want the full picture of what each game is and how it plays, see casino games in Macau, baccarat, sic bo and the traditional Chinese games.

The resorts themselves are destinations even if you never place a bet. Many casinos have restaurants serving international cuisine, so visitors can tour the different properties and eat their way around them⁶. Galaxy Macau alone has over 50 food and beverage outlets and around 2,200 hotel rooms, and opened with 450 gambling tables with room for 150 more⁷. The big Cotai resorts, including The Venetian Macao, The Londoner Macao, The Parisian Macao, Studio City and Galaxy Macau, sit close together, so you can walk or shuttle between several in one evening.

A few practical notes for a first visit. Since 2023 the six gaming companies have opened dedicated foreigner gambling zones inside their resorts, aimed at international visitors⁹. Responsible gambling information kiosks are placed in seven major casinos, including Studio City, Wynn Palace, Galaxy Macau, The Parisian, MGM Cotai, The Venetian and Grand Lisboa Palace, where both residents and tourists can seek support or apply for self-exclusion¹⁰. And if poker is your game, note that poker rooms have been shrinking: MGM Macau and Grand Lisboa Palace both closed theirs in 2025¹².

Opening hours: open 24 hours a day

This is the simplest fact about Macau gambling and one of the best: casinos never close. The official tourism guidance states plainly that casinos are open 24 hours⁶. The concession contracts signed by every operator repeat it: casinos must be open twenty-four hours, without interruption, every day of the year⁸. Legal commentary confirms the rule, noting casinos must be open around the clock and may only close in exceptional cases at the request of the Chief Executive¹³. The resorts themselves advertise the same thing: MGM Macau says it operates 24 hours a day, and Wynn Macau offers 24-hour gaming⁸.

In practice the operators follow through. MGM Macau states it operates 24 hours a day³, and Wynn Macau offers 24-hour gaming with a variety of games, including private gaming salons, the Sky Casino and a poker area¹⁴. The only interruption in recent memory was a 15-day closure mandated by the Macau government in February 2020 during the pandemic¹⁵.

What this means for you: there is no "best time" to visit for access. The floors are staffed at 4 AM the same as at 4 PM. Table minimums do not change with the clock, but the atmosphere does. Late night tends to be quieter, with more locals and regulars, while evenings and weekends bring the tour groups and the biggest crowds.

Free casino shuttle buses: where to catch them

The single most useful transport fact in Macau: the casinos will bring you to them for free. Official tourism guidance notes that a number of larger casinos offer a free direct shuttle bus service to and from the border crossings¹, and the same guidance says these free casino-arranged shuttles can be boarded at all the entry ports and some tourist hotspots⁶.

The pick-up points that matter to most visitors are:

• Macau Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal, the main arrival point for ferries from Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
• Taipa Ferry Terminal, closer to the Cotai Strip.
• Macau International Airport.
• The Border Gate (Portas do Cerco), the land crossing from Zhuhai.
• Hengqin Port, the newer crossing next to Hengqin island.
• The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge checkpoint, served by some operators.

Each resort runs its own fleet, painted in its own colors, with the destination on the front. You do not buy a ticket; you queue at the marked bay and board. During peak arrival times, buses fill and leave quickly; at quiet hours you may wait for the next scheduled departure. The schedules below give you a sense of the operating windows, which generally run from around 9:00 AM into the late evening, with some routes running past midnight.

Shuttle routes and schedules: Galaxy, MGM and Grand Lisboa Palace

MGM

MGM runs two shuttle routes. The main route links MGM MACAU, the Macau Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal, Macau International Airport, Taipa Ferry Terminal and MGM COTAI, running from 9:00 AM to 9:45 PM with a bus approximately every 15 minutes³. Note that the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal stop has been temporarily relocated to the area near the Jai Alai entrance¹⁶. A second route runs MGM MACAU to Macau Tower to MGM COTAI, roughly every 10 to 15 minutes, with buses stopping at Macau Tower only from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM¹⁷. The service is complimentary and serves both resorts, so you can use it to hop between the two MGM properties even if you are staying nowhere near them¹⁸.

Galaxy Macau

Galaxy Macau's shuttle network covers several entry points.

Grand Lisboa Palace

Grand Lisboa Palace offers a complimentary shuttle bus service from the various entry ports and prime locations in Macau²⁰. It is the same pattern as the others: queue at the resort's marked bay at the ferry terminal, airport or border crossing and board. Check the resort's current timetable on arrival, as stops and hours shift with demand.

Wynn

Wynn Macau is reachable by car, taxi, public transport and the resort's own shuttle bus²¹. Like the others, the shuttle connects the property with the main arrival points.

One quirk worth knowing: gaming machines that pay out in chips or currency may be authorized in the cleared departure area of Macau International Airport⁵, so you may pass machines on your way out of the city as well as on the way in.

Getting to and around Macau's casinos

Macau is small, and the distances are short. MGM Macau is about 5 minutes by car from the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal or the heliport, and about 15 minutes from the airport, Taipa Ferry Terminal or the Border Gate²². MGM Cotai is about 5 minutes by car from the airport or Taipa Ferry Terminal, and about 15 minutes from the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal, the heliport or the Border Gate²³. Taxis are plentiful and cheap by big-city standards, and the free shuttles cover most trips a visitor would want to make.

For the full picture of routes, driving times, public transport and how the Cotai properties connect to the downtown peninsula casinos, see getting to and around Macau's casinos, which covers every arrival point and transport option in detail.

Who may enter and gamble as a visitor

For visitors, the short answer is: yes, you may enter and gamble. Tourists are the backbone of Macau's casino business, and nothing in the entry rules singles out foreign visitors for restriction. The rules that do exist are mostly aimed at Macau's own public life.

A few groups are barred from casino gaming areas under the law: incapacitated persons, quasi-prohibited persons, culpable undischarged bankrupts, 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 devices²⁴. The same rule covers public administration workers, including public entity staff and security forces personnel, who may not enter casinos unless permitted by the Chief Executive²⁴. Senior officials, including the Chief Executive, principal office holders, Executive Council members and the directors of the casino concessionaires themselves, may not gamble in the casinos under their own concession²⁵.

Two practical points at the door. First, staff supervising casino entry may ask you for proof of age and can refuse entry to anyone who will not show it, so carry your passport²⁶. Second, a concessionaire may bar any person it considers unsuitable from entering or remaining in the casino, subject to a non-discrimination principle covering sex, race, nationality, residence, language and religion²⁷. In other words, dress reasonably, behave, and bring ID, and you will have no issue.

For more detail on who is barred and why, see casino entry rules in Macau, and for the wider picture of the market, gambling in Macau.