Baccarat side bets, a generational shift in player preferences

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Casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd appears to have joined the Macau-market trend of simplifying side bet options on its mass-floor and high-limit main-floor baccarat games. That is based on GGRAsia’s observations on Monday at Galaxy Macau, the firm’s Cotai flagship, and on Tuesday on the first-floor and third-floor gaming areas at StarWorld Hotel in downtown Macau.

As per checks, on Galaxy Macau and StarWorld main floors, players are being offered simultaneously on tables, the side bets ‘Small 6/Big 6’, ‘Small 7/Big 7’ and ‘Super Lucky 7’. The standard ‘Lucky 6’ and ‘Lucky 7’ side bets first seen market-wide last year, were not observed.

The slimmed options were also what was seen at the high-limit baccarat zones Pavilion North and Pavilion South at Galaxy Macau.

Market rivals Wynn Macau Ltd, MGM China Holdings Ltd and Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd, were observed back in August, as adopting a pared range of side bets per table. That was according to banking institution Citigroup in its monthly premium mass bets survey.

SJM Holdings Ltd – which also has a full “smart-table” operation at its Macau peninsula property Grand Lisboa and its Cotai resort complex Grand Lisboa Palace – has also adopted the simplified baccarat side bet layouts, GGRAsia observed on its latest site visits.

Recent GGRAsia visits to Sands China Ltd properties indicate the firm is continuing to offer Macau’s most extensive set of baccarat side bets per table. Lucky 6 and Lucky 7 were still available, as well as Small 6/Big 6, Small/Big 7 and Super Lucky 7 via its smart baccarat tables. From July, Sands China added a progressive jackpot to its baccarat table games offer.

Sands China is using Angel Group’s smart tables. The other five Macau operators have adopted Walker Digital Table Systems LLC’s technology.

On October 22, Robert Goldstein, chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands Corp, parent of Sands China, said on the group’s third-quarter earnings call, that side bets not only boosted house advantage relative to standard baccarat bets, but also added more fun for players due to higher potential payouts on winning hands.

In Macau, Lucky 7 has been offered in formats that pay either 6 to 1, or 15 to 1, when the play hits precisely a winning ‘player’ hand with a face value of seven points, composed of two or three cards.

The ‘Small 7/Big 7’ side bet – has two payout tracks. Small 7, also known as “Two-card 7”, pays 15 to 1 when play hits precisely a winning ‘player’ hand with a face value of seven points, composed of two cards. Big 7, also known as “Three-card 7”, pays 30 to 1 when a winning ‘player’ hand has a face value of seven points, composed of three cards.

https://www.ggrasia.com/galaxy-ent-taps-macau-trend-of-simplified-side-bet-offer-for-live-dealer-baccarat-checks?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=galaxy-ent-taps-macau-trend-of-simplified-side-bet-offer-for-live-dealer-baccarat-checks

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Availability of side bets in live-table baccarat in the Singapore and Macau operations of Las Vegas Sands Corp have moved baccarat from being “a boring game” with “no juice in it”, to being more analogous to sports betting with its proposition bets and side bets.

That is according to Rob Goldstein, chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands. The group operates casinos in Macau via its Sands China Ltd unit, and the Marina Bay Sands property in Singapore via its Marina Bay Sands Pte Ltd subsidiary.

Mr Goldstein added that the introduction in both markets of ‘smart tables’ with their automated record-keeping and player-rating capacity had undoubtedly assisted operations. He was speaking on the parent’s Wednesday call to discuss its third-quarter earnings announced that day.

“What’s changed in baccarat is not the smart table, that’s the scorekeeper. What’s changed is the game itself,” via side bets, “offers a lot more opportunities to gamble different ways,” the CEO noted.

Mr Goldstein stated: “It’s analogous to sports betting and the side bets… the proposition bets.”

“This isn’t casual betters, this isn’t a sophisticated better, this is everybody gravitating towards side bets that are house advantaged,” he added.

Patrick Dumont, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands, also stated on the call: “Credit to our gaming innovation team for their willingness to really look at the customer experience and add the opportunity to enhance that experience through some higher volatility bets, which the customers are actually using.

“They could choose not to use them, but they seem to be very popular. They create a better gaming experience and better enjoyment in the game.”

Grant Chum, CEO and president at Sands China, stated on the call that the side bet mix in Macau was “smaller than in Singapore, but it’s also rising and, and it has contributed to enhance the house edge over the past several years”.

Mr Dumont added regarding the side bets option: “If it’s not something that’s preferred by the players, eventually it evolves itself out of the game. And we’ve had a lot of different iterations of what’s on the felt.”

https://www.ggrasia.com/side-bets-have-added-juice-to-otherwise-boring-baccarat-lvs-chairman?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=side-bets-have-added-juice-to-otherwise-boring-baccarat-lvs-chairman

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The rise of baccarat side bets brings with it the opportunity for operators to create added value – but there is also the risk of value deterioration if players deem the new options to be too complicated or to yield diminished returns.

Baccarat has undergone a notable transformation, particularly through the introduction of “Lucky 6” and “Lucky 7”. These additions are designed to sustain gameplay engagement while driving casino profitability. By expanding wagering beyond the traditional “Banker” and “Player” bets, baccarat with side bet options creates fresh layers of excitement and anticipation among players. That said, baccarat side bets also present a complex interplay of value creation and destruction for both casinos and players.

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To value and beyond

New side bets are much like an acquired taste. They come with a learning curve, and not all players are willing to invest the time to understand the game rules. Some players may stick to the main game, leaving unfamiliar side bets underutilized. Reconciling novelty with simplicity is key to maintaining the timeless appeal of baccarat in Macau casinos.

Ultimately, value creation in casino operations should be viewed as a marathon, not a sprint. Baccarat side bets may deliver immediate revenue gains, but their true potential lies in sustaining player engagement and broadening the game’s appeal. This value-creating process does not result from sweeping changes, but from gradual, incremental improvements, including tweaks in game design, data-driven personalization and seamless integration of technology.

https://asgam.com/2025/08/28/betting-on-innovation/

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An analysis of the premium gaming areas of Macau’s integrated resorts by investment bank Citigroup has highlighted another round of innovation by operators when it comes to baccarat side bets – further highlighting the impact of smart table rollout across the city’s gaming floors.

A month after Citi’s regular table survey noted that Sands China had added a progressive jackpot to most of its baccarat operations, analysts George Choi and Timothy Chau observed that multiple operators have introduced the new Big/Small 7 side bet to their baccarat tables, albeit with differing strategies.

Melco, MGM and Wynn, Citi explained, have opted for a “less is more” strategy by removing both the conventional Lucky 6 and Lucky 7 side bets from their tables but adding the Big/Small 7 to the mix and keeping Big/Small 6 and Super Lucky 7.

https://asgam.com/2025/08/11/macau-operators-introducing-further-baccarat-side-bet-innovations/

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Baccarat side bets now contribute between 45% and 50% of Macau’s baccarat gaming revenues, representing a generational shift in player preferences thanks to the deployment of smart gaming table technology.

Stakeholders told IAG that such side bets previously comprised only a fraction of revenues and less than 1% of turnover.

Speaking at the G2E Asia conference at The Venetian Macao on Thursday, Clayton Peister, the Managing Director of analytics firm Differential Labs, attributed the change to the transformational nature of the data generated by smart tables which has allowed operators to better understand side bets and therefore experiment with table game layouts.

“These transactional level results help us understand the player in a much more effective way so we can program what we’re offering,” he said.

“An example is side bets which now account for 5% of turnover but 45% to 50% of revenue, which is quite high.

“Understanding those risk preferences, understanding those preferences around side bets, enables us to consider metrics outside of theoretical [win] so that when allocating rooms or seats at an event we can give that asset to the best person.”

All six of Macau’s concessionaires have either fully adopted or are close to completing installation of smart tables across their casino floors, prompting the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) to approve a series of new side bet options over the past two years.

Bryan Jenkins, Managing Director of leading smart table developer Angel Australasia, said operators now have a much better understanding of the true value of side bets as well as how they can be better used.

“Typically in the past, the way to test a side bet was to just put it on the table and see how the table revenue goes. There was no real information about it. Now you can see with the amount of side bets we have here and proliferating around Asia that people are recognizing that they can test side bets and know exactly how much they are getting out of it.

“It makes the testing of these side bets much easier when it comes to finding out how certain layouts work and where to position your higher value bets.”

The increased value provided by this greater proliferation of side bets saw Marina Bay Sands last month increase its theoretical hold percentage on rolling play from 3.30% to 3.70%. The company said in an earnings call that this was specifically a result of its greater utilization of side bets and more accurate data from the implementation of smart tables across its gaming floors.

It is for this reason that Jenkins said he expects operators across the board to adopt smart table technology in the near future if they haven’t already.

“We have already seen significant uptake in the Macau market, the Singapore market and to a certain extent in the Australian market … and the Philippines is very much catching up,” he observed.

“There are other outliers in Asia that have been slow [to adopt smart tables] but they will get the benefit of the first adopters. I think you will find that they’ll catch up fairly quickly and once people start using technology, they won’t go back.

“I can’t see there being any new casino openings or major expansion of a casino where they don’t at least strongly continue the utilization of smart data technology.”

https://asgam.com/2025/05/08/side-bets-now-contribute-close-to-50-of-macau-baccarat-revenues/