Ask Me About Gambling in Macau (China) + 3-way Trip Report + Pictures

[El Scorcho]

* Ask me questions!

So 3x in the last 15 months I've had to go out to south China for work (1 hour NW of Hong Kong). At the end of each one of those stays, I stopped by Macau -- the booming country/territory/whatever-you-call-it known as Macau. Formerly owned by Portugal (much like Hong Kong was British for a long time), it's now back in China's hands and is quickly becoming Asia's version of Las Vegas. Kind of strange given that gambling is illegal in mainland China but the #1 moneymaker in one of its territories.

More background: Macau is two islands -- a North one (Macau) and a South one (Taipa/Coloane). The South one is much more tame than the North one. About 95% of the casinos are on the North island.

In October 2007, I stayed two nights in the Venetian Macau. This place is a carbon copy of the one in Vegas, but enormously larger. Their site boasts an amazing 800 table games and over 3000 slot machines.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Venetian_Macau.jpg/400px-Venetian_Macau.jpg

The amusing part of those 800 table games is that the breakdown is seemingly 75% Baccarat, 10% War, 10% Sic Bo, 3% Roulette, and 2% Blackjack. Pai Gow poker, ironically, did not exist there. Neither did Let It Ride, 3-card-poker, etc. There were a few Caribbean Stud tables though.

Rooms were pretty standard compared to the Vegas version. The place was very expensive though -- about $200US a night during the middle of the week. Thankfully my company picked up the tab on all hotel and food costs.

Sadly, I should have quit gambling the morning of my ferry & flight back home -- I was up about $400 US and gave it all back.

Funny story -- the waitresses here go around offering soda and coffee. Since I didn't see them carrying cocktails nor asking for cocktail orders. I assumed it wasn't allowed. Turns out you have to specifically ask for them since the Chinese traditionally do not mix gambling with drinking, which is strange because they're obsessed with no-thought-required coin-flip games like Baccarat and War.

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My 2nd trip was last May after spending a month in China. This time I stayed on the North Island where all the old traditional casinos are and where most of the new American brands are starting to build (Wynn, MGM, etc.). I stayed at the MGM Grand which is just an awesome hotel top to bottom and is one of the neatest designed buildings I've seen.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/13/MGMGrandMacauBack1.jpg/450px-MGMGrandMacauBack1.jpg

I got completely owned gambling here. One of the hardest things to do is remember to divide your amount wagered by 8 so you can get your wager amount in your head in US dollars. Table minimums are usually $100 HKD (~$13 USD), and even those tables are scarce. $200 HKD and $300 HKD dominate the gaming landscape. Thus, if you go with a $750 bankroll like I did, it's very easy to lose it and lose it quickly.

The restaurants here were also good, much like the Venetian. During this trip I had been in mainland China for a month and thus, stuck to mostly American restaurants inside the hotel. Cut me a break, though -- I hadn't had a burger or steak in a month.

Blackjack here in Macau is dealt differently. First, the shoe is a continuous shuffler with 8 decks. Each person is dealt their normal two cards, and then the dealer gives himself only one. The table completes their hit/stay/double/split/surrender actions and then the dealer pulls his 2nd card from the shoe. Thus, it's very possible to split AA or double on 11 against a dealer ten and still run into a blackjack.

Room rates were near $240 a night during the week here.

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My third trip was a couple months ago. This time I stayed at the Starworld Hotel next to the Wynn & MGM Grand.

http://www.macaucasinoworld.com/_Media/starworld_at_night_textmedium.jpeg

This hotel was really fucking awesome amenities-wise too, though it was lacking in casino floor space. This was probably the nicest hotel room I've stayed in. 42" plasma on the wall, king size bed that was 10x more comfortable than my bed at home (and I love my bed), excellent view overlooking Macau on the 29th floor. It was awesome. Because of the limited floor space + high table minimums here on the weekend, I ended up walking across the street to the Grand Lisboa hotel (it's the big flowery looking building in the photos below) to rock some $50HKD (~$7.50 USD) blackjack tables.

While at the Grand Lisboa, I saw the biggest diamond I've ever seen, worth $216,000,000 and owned by Stanley Ho, casino mogul of Macau. It's on permanent display on the 3rd floor of the casino and is surrounded by 3 armed guards at all times. No photography allowed, but here's a file photo from the interwebs:

http://bp0.blogger.com/_GzXYfK-lDG4/Rp-GogOZMCI/AAAAAAAAB4w/lARmo8yd8_o/s400/The+star+of+Stanley+Ho+1.jpg

Also at the Grand Lisboa, right on the casino floor there is a burlesque-style show that runs every 15 minutes with a bar in front of it. At the bar were all westerners drinking and laughing up a storm. Behind us at all times were crowds of Asian families looking shocked at what they saw. Kind of funny and definitely shows the difference in cultures.

I didn't gamble too much here, as I was only there for one night and was hungover from my last night in mainland China. Lost about $150US.

Some other notes:

* ATMs there only let you withdraw $3000HKD a day, which is a little under $400US. Not really much to go on if you want to do some serious gambling.

* Being Portugese-owned for a while, cars in Macau travel on the left side of the road. I almost got hit by a car crossing a street when I instinctively looked left instead of right.

* I was one day late for the Macau Grand Prix in November. That would have been awesome. It winds around through the north island -- you can see some of the track in the photos.

* South China Sea creates some sick humidity. Each time I was there, it was about 85 degrees with about 85% humidity. I sweated my ass off.

* Most service workers speak good English. Beyond that, there isn't much.

* Almost every security officer was Portugese. Makes sense because Portugese dudes are much larger than the average Chinese dude.

* I wasn't allowed in half of the casinos I tried to get into one day I went walking around because I was wearing flip-flops. I had a nicer shirt and nicer jeans on than half the clientele but the flip-flops were a no-go.

* There are an assload of smaller casinos that have been there a long time on the north island. One of the casinos I walked into during the day was on the 5th floor, featured 10 blackjack or baccarat tables, and NO customers. I was the only one!

Onto the pictures.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/R1DZ6HWK6BI/AAAAAAAAAMs/XDKXchU5jqY/s800/IMG_1066.JPG
Venetian from behind

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/R1DZ23WK59I/AAAAAAAAAMM/mC6LUkkkRao/s800/IMG_1058.JPG
My room

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/R1DZ5XWK6AI/AAAAAAAAAMk/M8xn3-c6e1U/s800/IMG_1065.JPG
South island skyline during the day

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/R1DZ7HWK6DI/AAAAAAAAAM8/yo-I6BvYGuI/s800/IMG_1068.JPG
Hazy view of the north island (MGM Grand is the tri-colored stacked building)

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/R1DbDHWK6bI/AAAAAAAAAQM/sVYuRV3Qha4/s800/IMG_1092.JPG
Wynn Fountains

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/R1DbJHWK6iI/AAAAAAAAARE/X1PkQNrqQGM/s800/IMG_1099.JPG
Random Wynn Shot

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/R1DbSHWK6pI/AAAAAAAAASA/0mLE6KvaTRU/s800/IMG_1106.JPG
North Island Skyline

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/SVABmUc9COI/AAAAAAAAAjo/OOs0Dj8BJPU/s800/IMG_1138.jpg
Starworld Hotel Room

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/SVABuYBMlPI/AAAAAAAAAkA/GWZa5LeTCo0/s800/IMG_1141.jpg
View of the Wynn, Macau Tower, plus another hotel construction

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/SVABur96uvI/AAAAAAAAAkI/_oD2J0tjPfA/s800/IMG_1142.jpg
View from the 29th floor of the Starworld Hotel

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/SVABvRKMFAI/AAAAAAAAAkY/7SunOhbhMKA/s800/IMG_1144.jpg
Same view at night + camera reflection

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/SVABv-zcpCI/AAAAAAAAAkg/aClpGVBhobI/s800/IMG_1145.jpg
Grand Lisboa Hotel/Casino

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/R1DbFnWK6eI/AAAAAAAAAQk/81jMq6-C69s/s800/IMG_1095.JPG
Another shot of the casinos in the area

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Ffq5FXeGHCI/R1DbPHWK6nI/AAAAAAAAARs/csGR5Ge0fak/s800/IMG_1104.JPG
Inside the Venetian

Fire away with questions

[Deftones]

what did it feel like to be in a country where you could look people eye to eye?

[El Scorcho]

Fantastic, I'm going to move there soon just for this reason

plus i get away from you

[Red Dog]

Cool pics.

[Deftones]

Fantastic, I'm going to move there soon just for this reason

plus i get away from you

you'd miss our yearly vegas trips when we make fun of the idiot tourists that play 2/4 limit on the strip.

[Thrush]

No sexy time with lovely asian Wimmenz?

[El Scorcho]

nope

the thing to remember is that if one of those sexy asian wimmenz puts out for me, chances are she's already put out for 250 guys just like me

eww

[actyper]

So didn't try any poker there yet?

I'm going there in April. Want to check out that pokerstars/Grand Wado hotel, play some tournies there.

[El Scorcho]

So didn't try any poker there yet?

I'm going there in April. Want to check out that pokerstars/Grand Wado hotel, play some tournies there.

Nah, I either didn't have much of a bankroll or there weren't any games going near the hotel I was at. The Grand Waldo is visible from the Venetian but still a ways away and is off on its own. The bright side is that you can take a cab to pretty much anywhere in the whole territory of Macau for < $10 US.

Most of the games that are spread are no-limit games, starting at $10/20 HKD (~ $1.5/$3). Since I have about 1000 hands of NL experience in my life, the last thing I'm going to do is play a crazy hyper aggressive high-variance asian NL game, though from everything I've heard it is immensely profitable if you can avoid the beats.

If they had spread any reasonable limit games smaller than $200/400 HKD, such as $20/40 HKD, I would have sat in a heartbeat.

[X]

I went gambling in Macau about 25 years ago and it sure has changed!

The casinos were old-world Portugese and it was really hard to place bets. Each table was about 3 deep with people waiting to get to it.

[El Scorcho]

X touches on something I neglected to mention --

In Macau (and maybe other countries?) it's perfectly legal to place bets on other people's hands. For example, at a blackjack table I had $300 HKD in the circle as my bet and had won 4-5 hands in a row leading up to that bet. Instantly an observer behind me swooped in and put $3000HKD "behind" my bet, just outside the circle. Another observer swooped in and put about $500 HKD behind that bet. Of course I was dealt some really marginal hand like 16 vs 7 and gave the $3000 HKD guy the choice of action (16 vs 7 is very very marginally a "hit" but if you stood on 16 you're not really losing much EV). He told me that it was my hand and play the way I wanted to. I hit, caught the beautiful King of Clubs or some shit like that to get to the magical # of 26 and lost.

Not that it would have mattered anyway -- since the dealer only had 1 card, that king would have pushed him to 17 to beat my 16.

Still very interesting -- trying to do this gets you smacked down in Vegas. Also, Asians in casinos have no concept of independent events -- that's why you always see them scribbling shit down on paper while playing baccarat.

[xlpanda]

I went to Singapore back in December and my in-laws decided to take everyone over to Malaysia to play at Genting which is their version of Vegas.

That's probably the biggest thing that hit me was that you could bet other ppl's hands. I was watching this blackjack table for while and ppl would just walk by and watch and start placing bets. It was quite normal to have like 5-8 ppl behind those seated down placing bets. I finally got into the action as well but it felt really funny not handling the cards and letting someone else do all the "work".

Same observation about the food/beverage cart. I saw a cart but was so used to Vegas where they have ppl walking around serving you that I kept waiting and ended up not getting a single drink lol.

Hopefully one day I'll get to hit Macau as well. Anyways, Genting in Malaysia is another spot for you world travelling gamblers. I mostly saw baccarat, roulette, blackjack, some 3-card poker, carribean poker, and the texas holdem poker game (not sure how to describe this...it's not your normal limit or NL holdem game...more like a funky 3-card poker/Holdem game variation if that makes sense).

Thanks for the pictures and write up of Macau!

[Red Dog]

That's probably the biggest thing that hit me was that you could bet other ppl's hands. I was watching this blackjack table for while and ppl would just walk by and watch and start placing bets.

I've seen that at Mohegan Sun when it was really busy, but only 1 person could ride another player's hand.

[Mole177]

how was the non american as well as american food?

[El Scorcho]

how was the non american as well as american food?

To be honest, my stints in Macau were after long stays in mainland China of upwards of 1 month. After eating native Chinese food that long, getting to Macau and seeing American-style restaurants and pubs was like that Daffy Duck cartoon where he kept seeing an oasis in the desert.

You have no idea what it's like to bite into big slab of red meat after not having any for a month.

That said, the food in mainland China was not something I was a major fan of but I got by. Depending on the provincial cuisine you had, there was a good possibility you could end up shitting fire the next morning.

Also, they use every part of every animal for food it seems. And any meat/fish is filled with bones to the point where it becomes a pain in the ass to eat and becomes not worth it.

Thankfully I stayed at a western-style hotel there so I was able to order things like club sandwiches, omelettes, etc. It was going out to dinner that became an adventure. They eat some weird shit.

Although I have much love for chinese hot pot dinners. Google it. Find one in your area. You'll fucking love it.

[nickdawgy]

What do you do for a living that lets you go to China for business?

[Deftones]

he-bitch man-whore

[El Scorcho]

What do you do for a living that lets you go to China for business?

I'm an engineer in the high-tech industry. We test and manufacture some of our products offshore and one of our subcontractors is near Hong Kong & Macau. Thus, every time I go over there I stop by and light money on fire in Macau. I was there 3x in the last 18 months but probably will not be heading back in 2009 due to the economy.

[pedagogue]

You forgot to talk about how "drinking" over there is different in the casino.

DrinkFAIL!

[El Scorcho]

that's a very good point peddy

The very first time I was there was in October of 2007 and I was by myself staying at the Venetian. I sat down at a blackjack table the first night and eventually a waitress came by. She announced, "Coffee? Tea?" and that was it. No "cocktails?" or "drinks?" or "blowjob?". Then I looked around and noticed nobody else was drinking so I figured it was either a casino rule or a national rule that alcohol was not allowed.

So Friday and Saturday passes very soberly and Sunday I'm doing some gambling before I have to catch a ferry and notice an Australian guy and his girlfriend next to me at the table drinking what appeared to be a Gin 'n Tonic. I asked if that's what it was and he confirmed. I expressed my disgust over being sober for no reason the last 48 hours. He said, "They don't offer it here, but you can ask for it and they'll get it for you."

DOH

It then occurred to me that the reason I saw nobody drinking booze is that traditionally, Chinese (asians?) in general never mix gambling and alcohol.

[actyper]

No just Chinese. Viets go to the tables to drink not to the bar. Scotty/David Phan

[The Bus]

Awesome! Nice pics.

[actyper]

Scorcho, if you had to pick one hotel to stay at for a night, on your own dime, which one would you choose?

[El Scorcho]

You know, I loved the Starworld hotel the most simply because if it was on my own dime, it was still relatively affordable.. $170-200 a night or so on the weekend. The rooms were really nice and comfortable too.

The gambling there is pretty meh but the MGM and Wynn are next door and really easy to get to.

[actyper]

Yeah looking at everything I think thats my choice as well. Everything else is in the high $200s and Wynn is just crazy. This is for a mon night too. Thanks

[El Scorcho]

Cool, let me know if you need any tips/advice (I assume you haven't been before).

Whats your reason for going?

[actyper]

Doing an asia trip in Mar/Apr for a month. HK/China/Thailand/Malaysia. I dunno if I can go a month without degeneration! Need at least a 1 day fix

[nickdawgy]

I'm an engineer in the high-tech industry. We test and manufacture some of our products offshore and one of our subcontractors is near Hong Kong & Macau. Thus, every time I go over there I stop by and light money on fire in Macau. I was there 3x in the last 18 months but probably will not be heading back in 2009 due to the economy.

Sounds like a good gig to me.

[LorenzoL]

Those are some great photos of some of the casinos in Macau.

[actyper]

Just got back from Macau. They upg me to an exec suite at starworld,as scorcho mentioned absolute beautiful. Pretty decent Poker games going on there. Slots in Macau are garbage as they are all video slots (I personally like the old school ones). Sic Bo is prob the most popular game there. I run like ass at table games there.

[El Scorcho]

What stakes did you play? How did you fare?

More of a trip report, plz!

My only regret on the Macau thing is that all times I've been there, I was alone on the tail-end of a long work trip. I would like to end up there someday with a buddy or two so we can paint the town red.

Starworld is the fuckin' nuts. MGM & Wynn & Venetian & Sands get all the press and the hubbub there but Starworld goes unnoticed as a hidden gem.

[actyper]

Didn't do as much playing as I would have liked. Macau was the last leg of my month long Asia trip. Was there with the wife, and was sightseeing throughout the day. Didn't start the poker playing until about 10:30pm. First went downstairs, past the tallest Chinese girls in the world, to the starworld pokerroom. Absolutely empty.

Went over to the Wynn, and went on the waiting list. Killed some time at the BJ tables which owned me. About 1/2hr later a spot opened at the 10/25. The 25/50 action was supposdly better, but after the amount I already spent on this trip, I pussied out. Mix of China and HK players (I only understand cantonese). Pretty much standard players, do everything by the book, except the odds part. Every hand would get critiqued afterwards by the players. Most guys there play in fear of monsters, especially after I showed my quad Aces. Waaah!!!! I don't think I lost a hand where I raised pf, and don't remember any showdowns. No monsters pots either. Made about 2k (HK) in 2hrs before the table broke. The other tables had some waiting lists, so I went cruising for some sic bo action and some slots.

Went back to Starworld after and they had 2 tables running. Unfortunately they were tight passive action. Limpers/callers, boring stuff. Good for grinding, not for me. Left with a small profit after a couple hours of that, more than enough to buy some 5am noodles.

I didn't even check out the Venetian side, though having all those shuttles is a great source of free transportation around Macau. Ate at some sushi restauraunt at the Fisherman's Wharf, pretty good.

Would definately visit Macau again. Its not Vegas, but it does its job. All the pokerrooms were run efficiently, and its good if you just want to get your gamble on. No free alcohol though at the Wynn. Red bull is though.

[El Scorcho]

Those 6-foot gals at Starworld were smoking hot. That's one thing I remember most about the hotel. They didn't look like they had cocks, either.

Those shuttles running back and forth were definitely great. I took cabs a few times mostly because I was far away from a shuttle point and a cab only cost about $50 HK ($6 US).

Did you walk into the small native casinos at all? Some of them were hilarious with how small they were, yet they were really fancy on the inside. I walked into one that had 10 blackjack tables and I was the only person in the place.

[actyper]

No didn't check out very many casinos at all. Wynn, Starworld, MGM, Lisboa. Would like to go back and spend some more time there. I like how cheesy they all look at night though.

[lordwow]

That room looks almost identical to the Venetian Vegas rooms, except the bed looks a lot shorter :lol:

[El Scorcho]

it just looks a lot shorter cuz there's 94 fucking decorative pillows on it

[lordwow]

Actually you're right, I looked at my photos from the Vegas one, and the bed was that size.