The Parisian Macao

The Parisian Macao: a Paris-themed integrated resort on the Cotai Strip

The Parisian Macao is an integrated resort inspired by the wonder of Paris, the "City of Light," and it brings a half-scale Eiffel Tower to the Cotai Strip⁵. It opened on September 13, 2016, as the fourth development on the Cotai Strip by Las Vegas Sands³, and it cost about $2.7 billion to build⁷.

The resort sits on Cotai, the reclaimed strip between Taipa and Coloane that has become Macau's main resort corridor. It is connected to The Venetian Macao, and through that property to The Plaza Macao and The Londoner Macao, so the four resorts together form one interconnected resort city you can walk between without going outside¹. That matters in practice: on a hot or rainy day you can move from your Parisian room to the Venetian's canals or the Londoner's shops entirely indoors.

The Parisian is one of five integrated resorts run by Sands China, alongside The Venetian Macao, The Plaza Macao, The Londoner Macao and Sands Macao⁸. From the start it was aimed squarely at middle-class gamblers from China, with family-oriented facilities rather than the pure high-roller focus of older Macau properties⁹. That positioning shows up everywhere: the rooms are priced for the mass market, the mall mixes international brands with mid-range dining, and the casino floor is built around volume play rather than secluded VIP salons.

The property was largely complete on opening day, including all 3,000 rooms and the retail offering¹⁰. Awareness among gamblers was high before the doors opened, with Sands blanketing the region with social media impressions of the new resort in the preceding months, and on its first weekend analysts observed more people walking to the Parisian from neighboring Studio City than in the other direction¹⁰.

Gaming floor: tables, slots and size

The casino at The Parisian Macao covers roughly 272,000 square feet of gaming area and back-of-house gaming area, as reported at the end of 2022². An earlier filing put the gaming floor at 253,000 square feet¹¹, and press coverage at opening described a 135,000-square-foot casino space³, so the footprint has been counted differently at different times; the practical takeaway is that this is one of the larger floors on Cotai, though smaller than the Venetian's.

The floor is open 24 hours, as all Macau casinos are¹². There is no dress code barrier to worry about at this property: it is a mass-market resort, and you will see everything from tour groups in casual clothes to evening diners passing through.

The games follow the standard Macau mix. Press coverage at opening described 400 tables with popular games such as baccarat and roulette, alongside more traditional Chinese games, and a large bank of gaming machines including slots and video poker³. Sic bo, the dice game that offers roughly a 50/50 chance when you bet big or small, is by far the more popular local table game after baccarat³. Macau law permits 24 named games of fortune in casinos¹³, and the Parisian's floor draws from that list. The named games include:

• baccarat
• blackjack
• roulette
• sic bo
• fan tan
• pai gow
• several mahjong variants

Table games and slots in numbers

The table and machine counts have moved around over the years as Sands shifted tables among its properties. Here is how the numbers have looked at different points:

The trend is clear: the Parisian opened big and has slimmed down as Macau's market rebalanced toward pre-pandemic mass play. At opening, 310 of the new property's gaming tables came from Sands' other venues, Sands Macao and the Venetian, rather than being new licenses⁴, which is why the opening count was high.

For comparison, at the end of 2022 the Plaza Macao had 142 gaming tables and Sands Macao had 159², so the Parisian remains the largest of the three in table count. The Parisian Macao segment of Sands China's business covers the operation of casinos, hotels and shopping malls as well as catering services¹⁶.

Baccarat: the main game on the floor

Most of the table games at the Parisian feature baccarat, the Asian players' game of choice⁴. That is true across Macau: baccarat is by far the most popular game in the territory, followed by slot machines, then blackjack and roulette³. It is especially popular among high-rollers and Asian gamblers, and in Macau it is extremely dominant¹⁷. In VIP rooms, baccarat is typically the only game offered, no matter how extensive and personalized the services are¹⁸.

If you have never played, the Macau rules are straightforward. The game has two sides only, "Banker" and "Player"¹⁹. The table uses a dealing shoe (the "card shoe"), cutting cards, an automatic dealing shuffling machine, and a gaming table with one or two table certificates and seven or more seats¹⁹. Cards are dealt to the two sides and the side closest to nine wins; picture cards and tens count as zero.

The drawing rules are fixed, so you do not need to make decisions. The Player side must draw on totals of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10, and must not draw on 6, 7, 8 or 9, or when the Banker has a natural 8 or 9¹⁹. The Banker side follows its own fixed rule set. In practice, you place your chips on Banker, Player or a tie, and the dealer does everything else.

One number worth knowing: in early 2017 the Parisian's win rate on normal gaming tables was 18.3 percent, the lowest of Sands' five Macau properties at the time²⁰. That reflects the resort's mass-market focus, with lower-stakes tables than the VIP-oriented properties. The floor has produced big wins all the same: in 2017 a female player from Shanghai who prefers baccarat won a total of USD 20 million, centered on the Parisian, after reportedly losing heavily at the Lisboa²⁰.

For more on the game itself, see baccarat in Macau, and for the full spread of games across the territory, casino games in Macau.

Rooms, dining and the Parisian mall

The Parisian opened with 3,000 luxury hotel rooms⁷, and the almost 3,000 guestrooms and suites are designed with contemporary French flair, with one-third of them having views of the Eiffel Tower³. A later company filing described the property as offering more than 2,800 elegantly appointed rooms and suites⁶. Either way, it is one of the largest hotel inventories on Cotai, and the tower views are the ones to ask for if the Eiffel Tower replica matters to you.

The retail side is the Parisian mall: approximately 296,000 square feet of retail space with 109 stores bringing together international brands, plus 23 restaurants and eateries². The mall was complete on opening day¹⁰, so unlike some Macau resorts that opened with half-finished shopping, the Parisian has had its full retail offering from the start.

Dining runs from quick eateries in the mall to full restaurants, and the French theme carries through the decor. Because the resort is connected to the Venetian, the Plaza and the Londoner¹, your effective dining and shopping options are far larger than what the Parisian holds on its own; the Venetian alone is one of the largest resorts in the world.

Check-in and identification requirements

All guests must be registered upon check-in and must present a valid identification card, passport, travel document or other document accepted for migration control purposes, along with a valid stay visa or evidence of being legally allowed to stay in Macao throughout the entire stay²¹. In plain terms: bring your passport, make sure your entry stamp or visa covers your whole stay, and have it ready at the front desk.

The same document discipline applies on the gaming floor. A valid original passport or ID is required for all casino visitors at Sands properties in Macau²², so carry the original rather than a photo or copy. If you plan to join any slot tournaments or member-only events, you will need your original valid ID, such as a passport, travel document, or Hong Kong or Macau residence card, and it must be the same document you used to register your membership.

For the rules on who may enter Macau casinos generally, including age limits, see casino entry rules in Macau, and for the wider picture of playing as a visitor, gambling in Macau as a visitor.