Sands China Rolls Out New Baccarat Side Bets Across Macau Casinos

Sands China Ltd has begun offering the newly approved baccarat side bets ‘Monkey no Monkey’ and ‘Pairs+’ at its Macau casinos, according to GGRAsia site checks on Thursday. The options were visible on gaming floors and in high-limit areas at the company’s Cotai properties as well as at Sands Macao on the peninsula.

New Bets on Floor

GGRAsia found the two side bets in use at The Londoner Casino, The Parisian Casino, The Plaza Casino, and The Venetian Casino in Cotai, along with Casino Sands at Sands Macao. The bets were seen on many operating tables in the main gaming areas and high-limit sections. The outlet said it understood the bets had been introduced a few days earlier.

Marketing materials on LED screens and printed leaflets in Chinese and English described the new side bets as “Pioneered by Sands.” That branding was displayed across the gaming floors where the wagers were already available.

Chum Comments

Sands China chief executive and president Grant Chum Kwan Lock referred to the new baccarat side bets during the company’s first-quarter earnings call for parent Las Vegas Sands Corp, though he did not name them directly. He said the company had introduced new side wager options in Macau over the past week.

Chum also said that take-up of side bets remains much stronger at Marina Bay Sands than in Macau when measured as a share of total wagers. Even so, he said the use of side wagers in Macau has been moving gradually upward. He added that the introduction of the new options over the coming months should further strengthen that trend.

Payout Structure

The live-dealer baccarat side bets were introduced after similar wagers had already been adopted more widely across Macau starting in 2024. Industry observers have noted that the extent of the benefit can vary from one property to another, depending on customer mix and market positioning.

The ‘Monkey no Monkey’ bet offers 2 tracks of play, with payouts of 1 to 1 and 50 to 1. The ‘Pairs+’ side bet has 3 tracks of play, with payouts of 3 to 1, 30 to 1, and 300 to 1. The newer wagers add to the existing selection of baccarat side bets already in use at Sands China properties.

Minimum Bets

Site checks on Thursday showed that at Sands China’s Cotai casinos, the minimum wager for either new side bet started at HKD100 ($12.8) on main-floor baccarat. In high-limit areas, the starting bet for the side wagers was either HKD300 or HKD500.

By comparison, minimum bets for main-wager mass baccarat at those properties ranged from HKD500 to HKD3,000. High-limit main bets mostly ranged between HKD2,000 and HKD5,000. At Sands Macao, the new side bets started at HKD50 or HKD100 across both the main floor and the high-limit play zone, while main-wager minimums ranged from HKD500 to HKD2,000.

The new side bet options were not available at Sands Macao’s Gold Fortune High Limit room, which is limited to live baccarat play. Elsewhere on the Sands China casino floors visited by GGRAsia, the new wagers appeared alongside previously introduced side bets, including Lucky Six, Small 6/Big 6, Lucky 7, Small 7/Big 7, and Super Lucky 7.

Floor Deployment

The rollout shows Sands China expanding its baccarat offering across several of its Macau properties at once. With the new wagers now visible on main floors and in high-limit areas, the company has added another layer to its table-game lineup.

The deployment also places the new bets alongside existing side wagers that are already part of the casino floor setup. For Sands China, the latest additions have now been introduced across multiple venues in both Cotai and Macau peninsula.

Source: GGR Asia