Directory of Macau Casinos

Altira Macau is the busiest casino in the world, with rolling monthly turnover near $10 billion. And it only took a year from the time of its construction to get there. The downward trend in Macau gambling income hit Altira first and hardest.It's mainly a VIP casino and property.VIP money was the first to dry up.

The Altira is easy to pick out of the skyline.It's the tallest building on Taipa. If you're looking for the best 5-star service in Macau, the Altira should be your choice. A few gaming machines in the lobby are the only non-VIP options on the property.

The big draw at the Casa Real Casinois the low table minimums. They're among the lowest in Macau. Westerners aren't a common sight at this local's spot. It's more popular among the immigrant worker population.

If you're looking for low limits on Western games like blackjack (bets as low $13) or traditional Macanese favorites like baccarat (bets as low as $7), Casa Real Casino is a good place to start looking.

The Casino Lisboa is attached to a 2,000-room megaresort. The 200,000 square foot casino is home to 150+ table games and a small section of Western-style slots. Casino Lisboa has been refurbished several times since the 1960s and is now in direct competition with the Wynn, located next door. The Robechon au Dome restaurant at the top of the Lisboa is Macau's only eatery to have earned three Michelin stars.

The Lisboa's colorful waterfront facade is one of the most recognizable images of Macau. The casino offers an excellent selection of games—in fact, it's got the largest variety of table games in Macau. But it's not a casino for low rollers. The limits on most of the table games start at $300.

It's hard to miss Casino Oceanus – if you take the ferry, it's the first casino you come to. The façade of the Oceanus is a beautiful light show that must be seen at night. The Oceanus is one of just two casinos not attached to hotels, and it's one of the better-reviewed gaming venues in the area.

Oceanus is a favorite spot for general gambling and entertainment. It really is that fun. They offer a variety of games (blackjack, baccarat, casino-style poker, fan tan, Pai Gow, roulette, sic bo, slots, and video poker) all at among the lowest limits in the region. Machine games range from $0.05 to $1 per spin. It's like a small, fun Vegas roadside casino in the middle of a hotbed of Asian-style gambling.

If The Venetian is the family-oriented crown jewel of Macau, then City of Dreams is the wicked step-sister. City of Dreams markets to young people, preferably alone or in pairs. Bold, contemporary furnishings and bright, modern designs give City of Dreams an almost IKEA feel, but IKEA with a punk attitude.

Sandwiched between the Wynn, the Venetian, and the Sands on the famous Cotai Strip, City of Dreams competes by being the loudest, boldest, and brightest of all Macanese casinos. 200+ table games and VIP tables make up just a small chunk of the gaming that goes on here.Slots and video poker are the most popular. Some 1,200 gaming machines line the walls and produce a constant roar.

If the downstairs casino is too boisterous, there's a smaller space on the second floor (the Hard Rock Casino) that includes a higher ratio of table games, a VIP lounge, and waitresses serving free drinks.

Galaxy's next project in Macau is the redesign of this gigantic casino and race betting venue built on premium land on the Cotai Strip. Though the new Grand Waldo isn't fully open to the public yet, some soft opens and previews have revealed what it will offer when it's open.

Expect a premium spa facility, a 320,000 square foot gaming floor, and plenty of Vegas-style amenities designed to appeal to mass market gamblers. This is Galaxy's answer to The Venetian, and while it won't come close to matching that property's glitz and glam, it may attract some of the same tourists and steal some of their thunder.

This is Galaxy's most-recent opening, sandwiched between the Venetian to the north and the redesigned Galaxy Grand Waldo to the east. The Galaxy Macau was built at a cost of $2 billion, a 6 million square foot mega casino resort complex that includes a top-rated casino, the best pool in Macau, and no fewer than 50 different restaurants.

While The Venetian has a larger casino both in terms of games and area, the Macau has the biggest single-room gaming floor. Gamblers have no need to go up or down floors or to other parts of the resort. All the games are in one giant rectangular room.

One downside for some bettors is that no video poker or traditional poker games are available. This is a typical Macanese gambling spot with lots of baccarat and slots and little else.

If you've been to Macau, you've seen the Galaxy Rio. The Rio's signage is the biggest and brightestin the area.In fact, it features heavily in promotional materials for Macau. Galaxy opened this property in 2006, but it hasn't suffered much from wear and tear.

The interior is inspired by the Italian Renaissance, with artwork and furnishings themed perfectly to fit. If you're looking for a Vegas-style experience, the mass gaming tables and machines on the casino's first two floors will be right up your alley. VIP games are available on higher floors.

StarWorld is Galaxy's flagship property. It's located in the middle of the D'Amizade strip. Its façade is a modern work of architectural art that canbe used as a landmark whether you're staying there or not. The StarWorld's casino is big, bright, and active, with large LED screens on around the clock and plenty of mass market table and machine games available on the main floor.

Because this is Macau, you can find plenty of high-end games on higher floors if that's your thing. A heated infinity pool on the 17th floor is a favorite spot to unwind and catch views of the city spreading out below.

The Golden Dragon Casino hotel is made up mainly of deluxe rooms. The entire gimmick of the resort complex at Golden Dragon is elegance. The casino floor is on the small side compared to the other mega-properties in Macau. You'll only find 100 gaming machines sitting beside85 gaming tables.

VIP limits are available in dozens of small VIP rooms featuring table and card games as well as a few slot machines. The 84 "signature suites" in the attached hotel offer a view of the harbor as well as luxury amenities.

Sometimes called Macau Jockey Club or MJC by locals, the Grandview Casino is owned by the same ownersas the Casa Real. Both properties have aged well, which is a testament to their management.

Grandview Casino is the prettier of the two, with better upkeep, manicured lawns and gardens, and a smaller ratio of guests to staff. The famous Four-Faced Buddha statue marks the entrance – so while the building itself is a bit drab, it's easy to find.

This is Taipa's smallest casino in terms of number of games, but like its sister property Casa Real, these are among the lowest limit games in Macau. It's a sleepy property, one where 19 table games is just about enough. If you want a quiet round of low-limit Western and Macanese games, check out Grandview.

Located inside the New Century Hotel, Greek Mythology is another VIP-obsessed Macau casino with little to offer mass market customers. New Century is the worst hotel in Macau.The property caters mainly to business conference attendees and bachelor parties.

If you can ignore the crowd of obnoxious young alpha males, you'll find a casino made up mainly of high-limit baccarat, with a few mid-range blackjack and Sic Bo tables thrown in. Even the machine games are for whales, or at least mid-range spenders. If you plan on spending big, the commissions at Greek Mythology are said to be among the best in the area – just don't expect much from the attached hotel.

Jai Alai's casino is the oldest still operating gaming floor in Macau.That's not a good thing. A number of the games are on the older side, as is the décor, the layout, and even the food service. Still, generally-low limits and a large number of locals make this a favorite spot of serious gamblers or people who want to ignore the pomp and circumstance of the Venetian or the Wynn.

Located behind the Wynn, the MGM Macau is the only other Western-style casino resort now open. The Wynn is MGM's only real competition, and that's only because the Wynn has better real estate. MGM's location is wedged into a corner, hidden among One Central Mall and Mandarin Oriental.

It's a shame that tourists looking for a Vegas-style property stop at the Wynn. MGM's numbers were down for years before the general downturn in the Macau gambling economy. MGM's casino is larger with a better variety of games and betting limits. More than 1,000 slots are available, most of which offer wagers of $1 or less. You'll find every Western-style casino game at the MGM, which you can't say about the Wynn.

One of few Macanese casinos without an attached hotel, Paradise Kam Pek is unique in that its focus is electronic gaming. Kam Pek's stated goal is to eventually be a 100% electronic casino, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.

Now you can still find games with human dealers, especially in the private lounge VIP games. The main casino floor, which is about 125,000 square feet, is dominated by electronic versions of baccarat, blackjack, and other Western and Macanese favorites.

The twin towers of Pharaoh's Palace and the attached Landmark Hotel are among the oldest resort facilities in Macau. The Landmark was built in the 90s--before Macau was granted autonomy.The Palace Casino was among the first casinos built after legalization in 2002.

This was the first themed casino in Macau, built as part of a spate of projects helmed by big names from the Vegas gambling industry. Unfortunately, both the Landmark and the Palace are getting older. Aside from some cosmetic issues and the old gaming machines, the casino here is a rarity in Macau.It offers more table games than just baccarat.

If you're looking for low minimums, Pharaoh's Palace is the place where you'll find locals playing almost exclusively because of the cheap prices.

The Ponte 16 gets a bad rap mostly because of its location. The Sofitel hotel that this casino is located inside is in the closest thing that Macau has to a sketchy neighborhood, far north from the two major casino strips. But it's a convenient location at a major intersection. It's near some of the best restaurants and nightclubs in the city.

The casino is your average Macau gambling hall, with a large mass market table game section surrounded by 1,000 or so slot machines in the $1 per spin range with VIP tables available in private lounges above.

Las Vegas Sands owns 3 major properties in Macau:

• The Venetian
• The Plaza
• Sands Macau

Sands is the epicenter of no-frills gambling in the area. The no-frills experience starts with its location, which is near exactly nothing else of interest to tourists.

The casino is the focus – 700 tables and 1,200 gaming machines piled into a relatively small space. $40 table minimums are the norm, which is cheap by Macau standards. But Sands isn't just for mid-range bettors.All the non-VIP gaming machines are inexpensive, maxing out at a couple of bucks per spin.

The 550,000 square foot casino at The Venetian is the largest in the world. The attached resort and hotel complex is the biggest in Macau. Basically, The Venetian is a picture of excess in a place famous for its embrace of the finer things.

The Venetian is where celebrities go to see and be see while travelling in the East.Its showroom and amphitheater play host to the world's biggest touring acts. You may not be crazy about the tourist vibe in the casino.But for the average tourist, the Venetian (and its winding canals, 18-hole golf course, and fine dining) is a flashy can't-miss resort.

The Wynn is the first Vegas-style integrated resort in Macau. That basically means it's a combination of a hotel, spa, casino, and shopping center. The Wynn is "Vegas-style" because it has a giant fountain featuring a "dancing waters" show like the Mirage in Vegas.

The Wynn's casino is one of the biggest in Macau, but not in size. At just 205,000 square feet, about 40% of which is set aside for VIP service, it's not anywhere near the largest in area. The Wynn crams an amazing number of games into a smaller space. You'll find 508 table games, 390 of them VIP, spread around the floor. An additional 375 games are available in the form of slots, video poker, and other machine games.