New-to-market baccarat side bets ‘Pairs+’ and ‘Monkey no Monkey’ have been deployed by at least three of Macau’s six casino concessionaires, based on GGRAsia’s recent site checks. GGRAsia had first observed that side bet offer at Sands China Ltd properties on Thursday, with indications those bets had been launched by that company earlier in the week.
The bets had been approved for the market by Macau’s regulator the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, per a memo issued in March.
Friday checks showed both the bets being offered at Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace, the properties of Wynn Macau Ltd. At Grand Lisboa and Grand Lisboa Palace, flagship venues of SJM Holdings Ltd, the ‘Pairs+’ side bet was observed as a player option.
Deployment of the bets coincides with the run-up to the Labour Day holiday season.
As of Friday, ‘Monkey no Monkey’ and ‘Pairs+’ were on many operating gaming tables on main floors – and the high-limit “Diamond Club” – at respectively Wynn Macau, on the city’s peninsula, and Wynn Palace on Cotai.
Per GGRAsia’s Friday checks, at the Wynn Macau site, wagers on either ‘Monkey no Monkey’ or ‘Pairs+’ were starting at HKD100 (US$12.8) for both main-floor and high-limit live baccarat play. By comparison, the Wynn Macau minimum bets on main-wager options for mass baccarat were ranging between HKD500 and HKD3,000. High-limit main bets there mostly ranged between HKD2,000 and HKD5,000.
That day at Wynn Palace, bets on either ‘Monkey no Monkey’ or ‘Pairs+’ were starting at HKD100 or HKD300 across the main floor and high-limit play zone. Minimum bets on main-wager options on the main floor at that Cotai property ranged on Friday between HKD1,000 and HKD3,000, while those in the high-limit area ranged between HKD2,000 to HKD5,000.
On Friday, the ‘Pairs+’ option was also available in a live baccarat play zone – featuring exclusively minimum bets of HKD500 on the main-wager options – at level one of Grand Lisboa, the Macau-peninsula flagship of SJM Holdings. Available wagers on ‘Pairs+’ started at HKD100 there.
At SJM Holdings’ Cotai resort Grand Lisboa Palace, patrons could also access ‘Pairs+’ at a live baccarat play area that also featured main-wager options priced at either HKD500 or HKD800. The wagers on ‘Pairs+’ there started at HKD100.
The ‘Monkey no Monkey’ wager option was not observed at either of those SJM Holdings properties, though onsite staff indicated it might be added in coming days.
At the properties of Sands China, Wynn Macau Ltd, and SJM Holdings, the freshly introduced “Pairs+” – which offers up to 300 to 1 in terms of payout – has replaced the traditional baccarat ‘pairs’ bet, the latter offering an 11 to 1 payout.
Neither “Monkey no Monkey” nor “Pairs+” were observed as of Friday, at either MGM Macau or MGM Cotai – the properties of MGM China Holdings Ltd – nor at City of Dreams, the Cotai flagship of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd. The two bets were not observed on Friday at StarWorld Hotel on the city’s peninsula, or at Galaxy Macau, the Cotai flagship of Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd.
The rise of Macau-baccarat side bet options has coincided with the market-wide rollout of ‘smart’ table technology. The city’s side bet options have gradually expanded in scope since ‘Small 6/Big 6’ and ‘Lucky 7’ and ‘Super Lucky 7’ were introduced to the market in 2024.
Sands China has been utilising casino equipment supplier Angel Group’s smart table system across its Macau properties; while the other five operators in Macau have been using Walker Digital Table Systems’ offering, according to various statements by involved parties.
