The 10 cities where gambling is the main event, from Macau’s Cotai resorts to the Belle Époque rooms of Monte Carlo, with what to do once you leave the floor.
We ranked these cities by the scale of their gaming, using the regulators’ published win or the operators’ own figures, then by what each one offers away from the tables. The numbers settle the top of the list; the rest decides which trip is worth taking.
The largest gaming market on earth: its casinos won MOP247.4bn (about US$30.9bn) in 2025, and baccarat brought in 85% of it. Stay on Cotai for the resorts, then cross to the peninsula’s UNESCO-listed old town.
The Strip won about $8.8bn in 2025, more than half of Nevada’s gaming total, and no other city builds as much around the floor. The shows, restaurants and pools are the reason to book, the tables the reason to stay up.
Two resorts, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, and Marina Bay Sands alone took US$5.59bn in 2025. Foreign visitors walk in with a passport while residents pay a levy, and Gardens by the Bay is next door.
Nine casinos on one boardwalk won about $2.82bn from players in person in 2025, their best year since 2012. Come in summer, when the beach and the boardwalk carry the day and the floors carry the night.
Entertainment City, on reclaimed land by Manila Bay, holds the country’s biggest resorts, and licensed casinos nationwide won ₱182.5bn in 2025. Go in the dry season and pair the floors with Intramuros and the bay at sunset.
Nevada’s second gaming city: Washoe County’s casinos won $881.6m in the ten months to April 2025. Smaller and cheaper than Las Vegas, with Lake Tahoe and the Sierra an hour’s drive away.
Crown Melbourne runs a floor of 540 tables and more than 2,600 machines, on revenue of A$1.4bn in its 2025 year. It sits on the Yarra, a short walk from the city’s laneways and its sport.
Small by revenue, €259.6m for the casino group in 2025/26, and the most famous room in gambling. Mornings are a heritage visit; play starts in the afternoon, and you need a passport or national ID to get in.
City of Dreams Mediterranean, opened in July 2023 for more than €600m, put a 7,500 square-metre casino on the edge of Limassol. The rest of the trip is the seafront, the old town and the wine villages above it.
One casino resort on Playa Mansa that does not close, busiest in the January high season when Argentine visitors fill the peninsula. It is the smallest operation on this list and the best beach.
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