MGM Cotai

MGM Cotai at a glance

MGM Cotai is the Cotai Strip resort of MGM China, the local arm of MGM Resorts International, and the younger sister of MGM Macau on the peninsula. It opened on February 13, 2018, and stands 35 stories tall on an approximately 18-acre site, at a reported cost of $3.4 billion⁴. The resort features approximately 1,400 rooms and suites, meeting space, a high-end spa, retail, food and beverage outlets, and Asia's first dynamic theater¹.

The property was designed with mass-market customers in mind rather than high rollers from Mainland China, and only about 10 percent of its total floor area is dedicated to gaming⁷. At the opening, management expected 30,000 to 50,000 people to pass through the doors each day during the Lunar New Year holiday⁴.

The casino is open 24 hours⁹. Like all Macau casinos, entry is limited to those aged 21 or over; visitors from abroad are welcome, and the practical rule is simply to bring identification, as covered on the casino entry rules page.

Location and how to get there

MGM Cotai stands at Avenida da Nave Desportiva, Cotai, Macau, on the Cotai Strip, the stretch of reclaimed land between Taipa and Coloane that is often called Macau's equivalent of the Las Vegas Strip¹. The site is about 5 minutes by car from Macau International Airport or Taipa Ferry Terminal, and about 15 minutes by car from the Macau Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal, the heliport or the Border Gate³. A helicopter from Hong Kong takes about 15 minutes¹¹.

Free shuttle buses arranged by the casinos are available at all of Macau's border crossings and some tourist hotspots, so you can reach the resort without paying for transport¹². The full MGM shuttle routes are set out below.

Free shuttle bus routes and schedules

MGM runs a complimentary shuttle network connecting its two properties with the main entry points. The routes and times as published by the operator are:

There is also a free shuttle running directly between MGM Macau and MGM Cotai, so if you arrive at the peninsula property you can hop across to Cotai without paying¹¹. The service is free for guests, and the buses are open to casino visitors as well as hotel guests in practice, as with the shuttle networks run by the other operators, such as Galaxy Macau.

The casino: tables, slots and poker

The casino at MGM Cotai is open around the clock⁹. As of the end of 2024, the gaming floor covered about 24,549 square meters and carried 410 gaming tables and 972 slot machines². That is somewhat below the resort's licensed capacity: the property was built with space for up to 500 gaming tables and up to 1,500 slot machines⁵.

The table mix is dominated by baccarat, as it is across Macau; at the opening the property ran 175 table games, most of them baccarat⁴. You will also find the other Macau staples such as blackjack, sic bo and the traditional Chinese games like fan tan and pai gow, plus slots on the machine floor. For how the games themselves work, see the casino games in Macau page.

The opening in 2018 was phased. The casino launched with 177 mass-market gaming tables: 100 new-to-market live tables granted by the regulator, plus 77 tables transferred from MGM Macau⁷. A further 25 new-to-market tables were granted effective January 1, 2019, bringing the new-table total to 125¹⁴. On the machine side, the property was authorized to install 982 new slot machines on its floor at opening⁷. By the end of 2019 the floor held 1,154 slot machines and 262 gaming tables across about 27,696 square meters¹⁵.

MGM China also uses stadium-style electronic table game terminals among its premium gaming amenities, which let many players bet on a single live game from individual terminals¹⁶.

The Mansion: the VIP area

The Mansion is MGM's ultra-high-end product, and MGM Cotai carries the first international Mansion, alongside the MGM Cotai Emerald Villa and the MGM Macau Alpha Villa, all aimed at attracting the top end of the customer base¹⁶. It combines villa accommodation with premium gaming lounges¹⁶.

The Mansion villas opened in stages after the resort launch. The first units launched in March 2018, and at one point 20 villas were open with seven more to follow shortly, with all villas expected online by the end of September that year¹⁷. Junket-operated VIP gaming clubs were expected to start operating by mid-2018, with 27 mansion accommodation units opening around that period⁷.

For most visitors, The Mansion is something you walk past rather than enter: access is by invitation or high-level play. The mass-market floor, by contrast, is open to anyone who meets Macau's entry rules. If you are curious about how the VIP side of Macau gambling works generally, see junkets and VIP rooms.

Hotel rooms, suites and dining

MGM Cotai offers approximately 1,400 rooms and suites¹. At the opening this broke down into 1,248 standard rooms totaling about 19,500 square feet and 99 suites totaling about 73,500 square feet, though only a little more than 500 standard rooms were in operation on day one, with the rest following⁴. The hotel was fully booked for the Chinese New Year holiday period at opening⁷.

Dining runs to 12 restaurants and bars of different styles¹⁵. One named outlet is Anytime, a dining venue at the resort¹⁸. The resort also houses The Spectacle, the entertainment showpiece: Asia's first dynamic theater, which anchors the non-gaming side of the property¹⁹. Retail offerings, a high-end spa and meeting space round out the resort¹.

By comparison, the older MGM Macau on the peninsula is a much smaller property, with 8 restaurants and bars, world-class pool and spa facilities, and about 1,600 square meters of convertible meeting space²⁰.

Market positioning on the Cotai Strip

MGM Cotai sits in the middle of the Cotai Strip, the cluster of huge integrated resorts that has made Cotai the center of Macau gambling, much as the Las Vegas Strip is for Las Vegas¹⁰. Its neighbors include these resorts:

• The Venetian Macao, which offers 2,841 standard hotel suites and 64 Bella suites in a 39-storey tower, with gaming spread across exclusive VIP rooms and an expansive mass-market floor²¹
• The Londoner Macao, located across the Cotai Strip from The Venetian, The Parisian and The Plaza²³
• The Parisian Macao, a French-themed complex⁸

In table counts, MGM Cotai's 410 tables put it in the same league as the big Sands Cotai properties: at one point The Parisian ran 365 gaming tables, The Plaza Macao 108 and Sands Cotai Central 404²². The Londoner complex, across its four hotel towers, includes 368 Londoner Grand suites, 400 St. Regis rooms and suites, 659 Conrad rooms and suites, 594 Londoner suites including 14 David Beckham suites, and 1,842 Sheraton rooms and suites²⁴.

MGM's positioning has been deliberately mass-market: the company said from the planning stage that MGM Cotai would aim at attracting mass-market gambling customers rather than high rollers from Mainland China⁸. That shows in the layout, with only about 10 percent of floor area given to gaming⁷, and in the emphasis on theater, dining and retail.

Expansion has been discussed but slow. A company executive said in 2018 that significant phase-two investment was "not likely" before around 2021 or 2022, while confirming plans to add 65 additional guest suites, probably available 12 to 15 months later, and mentioning a possible new hotel tower of approximately 900 rooms as part of an expansion¹⁷.