Sands China ‘ended’ special two-tier bonus for baccarat side bet wagers (SIDE BETS)
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Rollout of new baccarat side bets ‘Pairs+’, ‘Monkey no Monkey’ now starts beyond Sands’ Macau venues, ahead of Labour Day: checks
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Sands China said Thursday that it is starting to see a gradual uptick in the propensity of players in Macau wagering on baccarat side bets – although their percentage of total wagers placed still remains well below its Singapore peer Marina Bay Sands.
The issue of side bets was raised during parent company Las Vegas Sands’ (LVS) 1Q26 earnings call, with Sands being one of a number of operators to have previously stated that the higher margin betting options were not as popular among players in Macau as they have been in Singapore.
In fact, so significant has their impact been at Marina Bay Sands that LVS recently abandoned traditional hold calculations in favor of a new quarterly methodology, because smart tables have allowed them to calculate exact hold expectations on a rolling basis.
There has been no such shift in approach in Macau, although the city’s gaming regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), last month approved three new side bet options for the market – “Monkey no Monkey”, “Pairs+” and “4/5/6 Cards”.
Sands China’s CEO, President and Executive Director Grant Chum also confirmed Thursday that the company has rolled out some new side bets over the past week, which IAG understands to be “Monkey no Monkey” and “Pairs+”.
“In terms of … popularity, it remains true that the take-up of side bet, especially as a percentage of total wagers, is much higher still in Marina Bay Sands than in Macau,” said Chum.
“That said, the take-up of side wagers in Macau is increasing. The propensity to wager on these side wagers, we do see a progressive trend upwards. And I think the introduction of these new side wagers that we’ll be implementing now and in the next few months will further enhance their propensity.”
The new side bet options are available at The Venetian Macao, The Londoner Macao, The Parisian Macao and Sands Macao, with the “4/5/6 Cards” option set for implementation in the near future according to information gathered by IAG.
Both Sands China and Marina Bay Sands use Angel’s hybrid smart table technology.
https://asgam.com/2026/04/23/as-new-side-bets-start-rolling-out-across-macau-sands-says-player-take-up-slowly-building/
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Fresh baccarat side bets ‘Monkey no Monkey’, ‘Pairs+’ now in Sands China casinos: site checks
Baccarat side bets can boost Macau casinos’ performance but depends on a venue’s client mix, market positioning: observers
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Macau’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, has approved three new-to-market baccarat side bets, according to industry sources and an updated guideline issued for the sector and reviewed by GGRAsia.
The guideline – marked as in effect from March 23 – contains the approved play rules for baccarat side bets respectively named ‘Monkey no Monkey’, ‘Pairs+’, and ‘4/5/6 Cards’.
The Monkey no Monkey bet wins for the customer if the cards initially dealt in aggregate for the player hand and the banker hand, are either four face cards – in combinations of jack, queen or king. There’s also a win in the event of four numbered cards – in any combination ranging from an ace card, up to a card numbered as 10. That is per the gaming regulator’s guideline.
Wins on that bet have a payout of 50 to 1 if the cards initially dealt are four face cards. If the cards initially dealt are four numbered cards, the payout is 1 to 1.
The Pairs+ side bet wins when the banker hand and/or the player hand receive a pair in their two initially-dealt cards.
There are three tracks of play with Pairs+. If only the banker hand or only the player hand receives a pair in its initial two cards, the payout is 3 to 1. There’s a 30 to 1 payout if the first two cards of the banker hand and the first two cards of the player hand respectively each form a pair, but with different point scores respectively for the banker hand and the player hand.
The highest payout on Pairs+ is 300 to 1. That’s if the first two cards of the banker hand and first two cards of the player hand respectively each form a pair, and do so with with equal-points scores.
The 4/5/6 Cards side bet has six tracks of play, divided between banker-hand wins and player-hand wins, indicates the gaming regulator’s guideline.
There’s a 4 to 1 payout when the banker hand wins on no more than four cards dealt in aggregate across the banker hand and the player hand. There’s a 4.5 to 1 payout when the banker hand wins on five cards dealt in combination. The payout rises to 5.5 to 1 when the banker hand wins on six cards dealt in combination.
For player-hand wins on the 4/5/6 Cards side-bet product, there’s a 4 to 1 payout on no more than four cards dealt in aggregate; there’s a 6 to 1 payout on five cards dealt in aggregate; and there’s a 4.5 to 1 payout on six cards dealt in aggregate.
Baccarat side bets – favoured by the industry for boosting house edge – have been widely-implemented in Macau since 2024, supported by ‘smart’ table technology.
The ‘Small 6/Big 6’ baccarat side bet – a tweak of the side bet ‘Lucky Six’ in Macau casinos – was implemented market-wide in Macau in time for the Labour Day Holiday in May 2024. Later that year – coinciding with October’s National Day holiday period on the Chinese mainland – Macau casino operators debuted the baccarat side bets ‘Lucky 7’ and ‘Super Lucky 7’.
From mid-July 2025, Sands China Ltd had been operating a baccarat progressive jackpot. That offer “ended” with effect from March 16, according to GGRAsia checks of notices posted on the company’s casino floors. Other Macau gaming operators had – with effect from the second half of last year – opted to simplify their baccarat side-bet options across mass-floor and high-limit main-floor baccarat games.
https://www.ggrasia.com/macau-approves-new-baccarat-side-bet-options-monkey-no-monkey-pairs-and-4-5-6-cards?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=macau-approves-new-baccarat-side-bet-options-monkey-no-monkey-pairs-and-4-5-6-cards
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Macau casino operator Sands China Ltd “ended” from “March 16” (Monday) its special two-tier bonus for live-baccarat wagers on the side bet combinations ‘Lucky 6’ and ‘Lucky 7’ at all its premium and mass-market gaming floors across the city. That is according to tableside customer notices in Chinese, viewed onsite on Wednesday by GGRAsia.
The notices invited customers to “look forward” to “exciting.. new offers”, but didn’t elaborate. GGRAsia has approached Sands China for comment and further information on the new offers.
GGRAsia visited on Wednesday the main casino floors of The Venetian Macao, The Plaza, The Parisian Macao, and The Londoner Macao, in the Cotai district, to confirm the withdrawal. The step also applies to live-baccarat wagers at Sands Macao on the city’s peninsula.
The two-tier bonus, branded “Sands Baccarat Bonus”, had been first seen across Sands China’s high-limit and premium gaming venues in the Cotai casino district from mid-July. Players who wagered on the baccarat side bet combinations of Lucky 6, Small 6/Big 6, Lucky 7 and Super Lucky 7 – collectively named by the operator as “lucky wagers” – were eligible for the two-tier bonus.
The bonus feature was later also offered across Sands China’s mass gaming areas in Cotai and at Sands Macao.
The Sands Baccarat Bonus tiers were first, “Grand Bonus”. This was only triggered when the player’s hand won on a total of seven points over six points with a total of six cards, and where the player hand was formed solely by cards in the ‘diamonds’ suit while the banker hand was formed solely by ‘spades’.
The second tier was the “Major Bonus”, which was triggered when the player’s hand won on a total value of seven points over six points, with five or six cards. That was where the player’s hand was formed solely by cards of the same red suit – either ‘hearts’ or ‘diamonds’ – while the banker’s hand was formed solely by cards of the same black suit – either ‘spades’ or ‘clubs’.
Sands China seems to have been the only Macau operator to offer this specific type of baccarat bonus, in effect a progressive jackpot. That is based on GGRAsia’s periodic site checks of Macau gaming venues.
Baccarat side bets – favoured by the industry for boosting house edge – have been widely implemented in Macau since 2024, supported by ‘smart’ table technology.
During the second half of 2025, while Sands China was operating its baccarat progressive jackpot, other casino companies in the city opted for a strategy of simplifying baccarat side-bet options across their mass-floor and high-limit main-floor baccarat games.
Optimising the mix for side bet combinations has been a work in progress for the city’s gaming sector, noted industry scholar Ryan Ho Hong Wai in comments to GGRAsia in November.
Seaport Research Partners said in a March 2 update that baccarat side-betting had “been increasing in Macau”.
Senior analyst Vitaly Umansky had added: “We estimate that as a percentage of volume, side bets are now well over 3 percent and rising (the figure is higher in Singapore, especially at Marina Bay Sands) and we expect this will continue to increase.”
The institution estimated Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) to track circa 7 percent growth in the years 2026 and 2027, respectively, supported by increasing visits and spend from customers from China, including “easy money flows and the benefits accruing from implementation of smart digital tables and increasing spend on side bets”.
https://www.ggrasia.com/sands-china-ended-special-two-tier-bonus-for-baccarat-side-bet-wagers-from-march-16?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sands-china-ended-special-two-tier-bonus-for-baccarat-side-bet-wagers-from-march-16
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