Money and Currency at Macau Casinos

Macau is one of the biggest gaming destinations on earth, with baccarat, slots, blackjack, roulette and poker rooms running around the clock⁵. The money you use at the tables is not the money you use everywhere else in town, a quirk that catches first-time visitors off guard. This page explains what currency the casinos want, what else you can spend, how cards and ATMs work, and when you can play.

Currencies at Macau casinos: the Hong Kong dollar is the currency of choice

Macau has its own currency, the pataca, written MOP. But step inside a casino and the currency of choice is the Hong Kong dollar¹. Chips are priced in HKD, table minimums are quoted in HKD, and your winnings are paid out in HKD. If you arrive with patacas from the ferry terminal or the airport, expect to change them, or at least to find that the tables treat them as a second choice.

The same goes for poker. The money used at Macau's poker tables is the Hong Kong dollar, not the local pataca². So whether you are heading for baccarat, which is by far the most popular game in Macau, followed by slot machines, blackjack and roulette¹, or for a poker room, Hong Kong dollars are what you want in your pocket.

The scale of play can be startling if you are used to modest casinos elsewhere. In the VIP rooms of Macau casinos, it is not unusual to see clients betting HKD 100,000 a shot⁶. At the very top end, players have used lacquered square plaques in a 100,000 denomination at a single high-stakes table⁷. You do not need anything close to that to play, but it explains why the casinos are built around Hong Kong money: it is the currency the big spenders from across the border and from Hong Kong itself arrive with.

For a first visit, the practical approach is simple. Arrive with Hong Kong dollars if you can, since they are accepted at the tables and, as we cover below, widely accepted around Macau generally. If you are coming from Hong Kong, this is easy: the currency you already carry is the one the casinos want. If you are coming from elsewhere, change into HKD rather than MOP for your gaming budget.

Which casinos accept only Hong Kong cash

Some casinos in Macau accept only Hong Kong cash¹. This is worth knowing before you sit down, because it is not always obvious from the outside. A casino floor may look like any other, with restaurants serving international cuisine alongside the gaming tables⁴, but at the cage or the table, the staff may want HKD notes and nothing else.

The reason is largely historical and practical. Macau's customer base has always been heavily weighted toward visitors from Hong Kong and mainland China, and Hong Kong dollars are the money that flows in with them. The casinos' accounting, their VIP play and their junket relationships have long run on HKD, so some floors simply never set up for anything else.

What this means for you: do not assume that because Macau has its own currency, the casinos will take it. Check before you buy in. If you are already inside a casino with only patacas, ask at the cage whether they will exchange them, but be prepared for the answer to be that this particular floor is Hong Kong cash only. The safest plan is to carry HKD for the gaming floor and keep a smaller amount of MOP for everything outside it.

If you are planning which property to visit, our page on casinos in Macau covers the individual resorts, and Gambling in Macau gives the wider picture of what there is to play.

Macau pataca, Hong Kong dollar and other money: what you can use and where

Outside the casinos, the pataca is Macau's own currency⁸, and it is what you will use for taxis, street food, shops and most everyday spending. The two currencies live side by side, and the general pattern is:

• At the gaming tables: Hong Kong dollars, at every casino, and only Hong Kong cash at some¹
• At the poker tables: Hong Kong dollars²
• Around town: patacas, with Hong Kong dollars also widely accepted because so many visitors arrive from Hong Kong
• At the racetrack: there is nothing to bet on any more, because horse racing activities in Macau ceased from April 1, 2024⁹

That last point is worth noticing: the racetrack no longer exists, so there is no on-course betting to be done in either currency. If you were thinking of horse racing in Macau as part of your trip, the races are over¹.

Cards and ATMs. China UnionPay cards are the mainland card network, and Macau imposed checks on how they are used at cash machines. Since May 2017, ATMs in Macau, including devices located inside casinos, require facial recognition and identification card checks before Chinese UnionPay cardholders can withdraw cash³. If you hold a UnionPay card, expect to have your ID verified at the machine. If you hold a Visa, Mastercard or another international card, ordinary ATM withdrawals work as they do elsewhere, though fees and limits depend on your bank.

Virtual currencies. Cryptocurrencies and other virtual currencies are not permitted to be used for gaming activities in Macau³. You cannot buy chips with crypto at the cage, and no Macau casino offers online gambling¹¹, so there is no digital route around the cash-based system either.

Changing money. Because the tables want HKD, the useful move is to change straight into Hong Kong dollars rather than patacas if your budget is for the casino. Money changers and casino cages handle both currencies, and Hong Kong dollars are the ones that will never be refused at a gaming table. Keep some patacas for the parts of town where small change matters.

Tax on your winnings. Here is the good news: winnings from gambling activities are not taxable for players in Macau¹², and poker winnings, both cash and tournament, are generally tax-free as well². The heavy taxation in Macau falls on the operators, not on you.

Operators pay this in twelfths at the treasury of Macau's finance department, by the tenth day of the month following the month the revenue relates to¹⁶. None of that comes out of your pocket when you cash out.

For the full picture of how Macau taxes gambling money, including what the operators pay and what you do not, see our in-depth page on tax on gambling winnings in Macau.

Casino opening hours: open 24 hours

Macau casinos never close. The official tourism guidance is that casinos are open 24 hours⁴, and the same is true across the board: MGM Macau operates 24 hours a day¹⁷, and the poker rooms are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week².

This is not just custom, it is the law. Each casino must operate continuously, 24 hours a day, without interruption¹⁸. The concession contracts spell it out: the concessionaire must open its casinos twenty-four hours, without interruption, every day of the year¹⁹. Casinos can only suspend or adjust their hours in exceptional cases, and only at the request of, or with the authorization of, Macau's Chief Executive²⁰.

The rule has held even under pressure. During the coronavirus outbreak, casinos in Macau continued to operate round-the-clock¹⁰. The one genuine interruption came in February 2020, when the Macau government mandated a 15-day closure of the casinos¹⁰, after which operators were given up to 30 days to resume operations¹⁰. Those were extraordinary moments, not a pattern: the normal state of a Macau casino is that it is open, whatever the hour.

For you as a visitor, this means total flexibility. You can walk into a casino in the middle of the night after a late dinner, or play a few hands of baccarat before breakfast. Table activity thins out in the small hours and picks up from late morning, but the doors do not close and the cages do not shut. If you are combining a casino visit with other sightseeing, see getting to and around Macau's casinos for transport that matches the round-the-clock schedule.