Macau Border Gate Set for $69 Million Upgrade

Posted on: March 19, 2025, 12:13h. 

Last updated on: March 19, 2025, 10:16h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.
  • Macau’s main border gate is receiving a facelift
  • The local government will spend more than $69 million on the project
  • Macau continues to pivot from a high-roller’s paradise toward the mass public

The tens of millions of people who flow through Macau’s main border gate each year will soon find an upgraded facility following what the local government is billing as a major renovation of the checkpoint facility.

Macau border gate checkpoint renovation
Tourists and residents ready to enter Macau’s main checkpoint at the Gongbei Port. The customs and immigration checkpoint on the northern tip of the Macau Peninsula is set for a major renovation. (Image: Shutterstock)

Macau, a Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic, is an enclave where mainlanders must obtain visas either individually or as part of a group to legally enter. The casino hub is the only place under China’s control where casinos are allowed. Gambling is the region’s economic driver.

Macau’s primary Border Gate Checkpoint is located on the city’s northern edge adjacent to the mainland’s Gongbei neighborhood in the Guangdong Province. The immigration and customs checkpoint is one of three land crossings into Macau, with the two others being the Lotus Bridge connecting Hengqin Island and Macau’s Cotai, and the other being the Qingmao Port-Macau Frontier Post Building on the northwestern edge of the Macau Peninsula.

The main Border Gate Checkpoint opened in January 2004, a little more than five years after Macau was handed back to China from Portugal and Las Vegas Sands embarked on an aggressive investment to transform undeveloped land on Cotai into what is today where the city’s glitzy casino resorts litter the so-called Cotai Strip, or Asia’s version of Las Vegas.

Getting Into Macau 

The Macau SAR Government reported that the Border Gate Checkpoint, or Posto de Migração das Portas do Cerco in Portuguese, is set for a CNY500 million (US$69.18 million) overhaul. Online Asian-focused gaming news outlet GGRAsia reports that the investment is part of “a wider revitalization initiative” in Zhuhai’s Xiangzhou District.

In 2024, Macau’s Judiciary Police, which monitors border crossings, counted more than 34.92 million visitor arrivals, a nearly 24% increase from 2023. Of those counts, the land checkpoints facilitated about eight in 10 visitors, with most at the northern gate. The remaining 20% arrived via air or sea and were processed through the airport and sea terminals’ customs facilities.

The more than $69 million renovation will include an overhaul of the people processing functionality and cosmetic enhancements. The underground retail shopping mall will additionally receive a facelift. 

2025 Slow Start 

Macau’s gaming industry, the world’s richest, got off to a lethargic start in 2025. February’s Chinese New Year disappointed, and through two months, gross gaming revenue for the six casino operators — Sands, Galaxy, MGM, Melco, Wynn, and SJM — is just 0.5% higher than January and February 2024.

Macau Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai warned that the government’s pre-2025 gaming revenue forecasts — critical to the city, as gaming accounts for about eight cents of every tax dollar the local government receives — could have been overdone considering economic conditions.

The new economic cycle, consumption patterns, and class changes have slowed down the recovery from the pandemic,” Sam said.

Macau is to diversify its economy and lessen its reliance on casino gambling, which remains subdued from pre-pandemic levels after Beijing forced most VIP junket groups to abandon their businesses and cease transporting mainland high rollers to the tax haven gaming enclave. That diversification, however, will take time.

“The structural problem of the gaming industry’s dominance will continue for a period of time and I am afraid that it will be difficult to realize a change in the short term,” Sam explained.