Golden Week in Macau: Why Asia Bets on Baccarat

From October 1 to 7 China celebrates its National Day holidays, better known as Golden Week. Millions of people travel, and for many of them there is one obvious destination: Macau, the only place in China where casinos are legal. Inside those casinos, almost everyone crowds around the same kind of table. They are playing baccarat.

Here is what is happening in Macau right now, why Asian players love this particular game, and how to play it if you have never sat at a baccarat table.

Five Golden Week numbers

169,635. That is how many visitors entered Macau on October 1, the first day of the holiday. Up 22.3% on last year.

86%. The share of first-day visitors who came from mainland China: 147,013 people.

84%. Roughly how much of Macau's casino revenue came from baccarat in the second quarter of 2026: 57.6% from mass-market tables plus 26.1% from VIP rooms. Slots, roulette and dice share the remaining 16%.

-1.2%. Macau's casino revenue change in September versus last year. It was the fourth monthly decline in a row, so the city is counting on the holiday week.

24.08 billion patacas. What Macau casinos made in October 2025, about $3 billion. To match it, this Golden Week has to be a strong one.

Baccarat rules in two minutes

Baccarat looks posh, but the rules are simpler than blackjack. You make no decisions during the hand; you only choose what to bet on.

• Three bets: Player, Banker or Tie. Player and Banker are just the names of the two hands; you are not playing for either side.
• Counting: aces are worth 1, cards 2 to 9 are face value, tens and picture cards are 0. If the total is above 9, only the last digit counts: 7 + 8 = 15, so 5.
• Goal: the hand closest to 9 wins. An 8 or 9 from the first two cards is a "natural", and the hand ends there.
• The third card is drawn automatically according to a fixed table. You do not need to learn it; the dealer handles everything.

Payouts: Player pays 1 to 1, Banker also pays 1 to 1 but the casino takes a 5% commission from the win. Tie usually pays 8 to 1.

For a fuller walkthrough with example hands, see our guide What Is Baccarat and How to Play It.

Why Asia chose baccarat

Nearly fifty-fifty odds

The house edge on Banker is about 1.06%, on Player about 1.24%. Those are among the lowest numbers anywhere in the casino, and players know it. Baccarat has a reputation as a fair game.

No strategy, pure luck

In poker or blackjack you can blame a loss on your own mistake. In baccarat there is nothing to decide, so a loss is just a bad day and a win is your luck. In a culture that takes luck seriously, that is the perfect formula.

Speed and noise

A hand takes less than a minute, and a crowd gathers to cheer for the same hand. A busy baccarat table in Macau feels more like a football stand than a quiet card room.

Superstitions at the table

The rules of Asian baccarat are simple; the rituals around them are not.

• The squeeze. The player with the biggest bet on a hand slowly bends up the corner of the card, as if trying to squeeze the right value out of it. It can take a full minute while the whole table holds its breath.
• Blowing on cards. If a card might show an unwanted extra pip, players blow on it and shout to "blow it away". It works about as well as shouting at the TV during a match.
• The number 4. In Chinese it sounds almost like the word for "death", so people avoid it, and Asian casinos often simply skip seat number 4 at the table.
• The number 8. It sounds like "wealth", so an 8 in the hand gets a loud cheer, and players like to bet amounts full of eights.
• Roadmaps. A screen above the table shows the history of results: the "big road", the "bead plate". Many players hunt for patterns and bet "with the streak". In reality every hand is independent of the previous ones; the scoreboard just makes a system feel real.

If signs and rituals are your thing, we have a whole piece on them: Lucky Rituals: What Signs Affect Crypto Casino Bets? And for the people who bet big in Macau, read Who Are High Rollers?

The main trap: betting on a tie

An 8 to 1 payout looks generous, but the house edge on a tie is around 14%. That is more than ten times worse than betting on Banker. A tie comes up roughly once in ten hands, and almost everything you win on it gets eaten by losses in the other nine. Experienced Macau players bet on a tie only for fun and only small.

How to try baccarat without flying to Macau

The Coins.Game live casino has dozens of tables with real dealers: classic Baccarat, fast Speed Baccarat, Golden Wealth Baccarat with multipliers. There is also Squeeze Baccarat, where the dealer reveals the cards with that slow squeeze, so you can get a taste of Cotai from your sofa.

A tip for your first session: start with the minimum bet on Banker, watch a dozen hands, and do not chase the tie. Baccarat is fast, and a bankroll can melt as quickly as it grows.