Asian poker has just received news that sounds like a chip falling silently on the table: Wynn Macau closed its poker room at the end of January, reducing the active venues in Asia’s main gaming epicenter to just three.
The room had been operating for years, but it never managed to recover from the blow dealt by the pandemic, when the island’s casinos practically came to a standstill. Today, those who want to play live in Macau must find a seat at the Venetian Macao, MGM Cotai, or Wynn Palace Cotai, the last bastions of poker in the former Portuguese colony.
Is the end of Macau poker approaching?
The decline is not isolated. Last year the rooms at MGM Macau and Grand Lisboa Palace also closed, reflecting a downward trend in the game, despite historically being used as an entry point to attract young players to the casino ecosystem.
Wynn Macau, one of the region’s main casinos, no longer has a poker room.
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The curious thing is that the numbers don’t tell such a negative story. In 2025, poker generated 121 million dollars, its best record since 2008 and an increase of 10,4% compared to 2024. There was even a record quarter with 30,3 million. However, the industry remains marked by strong irregularity: it’s enough to remember that in 2019, 55,4 million came in, and in 2020 the figure plummeted to just 4,3 million.
The problem seems to go beyond immediate profitability. After the pandemic, tournament poker only returned in 2024 and failed to establish itself: the World Poker Tour had to cancel a series on the island. New regulations, which prevent operators from sharing revenue with third parties, have become an obstacle for major brands on the international circuit.
The outlook is not exclusive to Asia. Las Vegas has also seen intermittent closures and reopenings, such as the cases of Green Valley Ranch and Planet Hollywood, showing that live poker is going through a stage of global adjustment.
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Source: Cardplayer.com
