Macau is two things stacked on one building at 28 Lindsay Crescent in Kingston 10: a slot machine gaming room, and a rooftop bar on the second floor with the Blue Mountains on one side and the city on the other. It is not a casino, and it legally cannot be, because Jamaica does not have one. The rooftop books up, so reserve.
History
The name is a real place, and a very large one
Macau is a small peninsula on the south coast of China that the Portuguese settled as a trading post in the sixteenth century and held until it was handed back to China in 1999. What makes it worth naming a Kingston bar after is what happened next. A gambling monopoly held by the tycoon Stanley Ho expired in 2002, the territory opened to foreign operators, and mainland Chinese visitors poured across the border. In 2006 Macau's gaming revenue passed that of the Las Vegas Strip, and the former Portuguese colony became the largest gambling market on earth. It has held that position, with interruptions, ever since. So the name is not decoration. It points at the world capital of the thing this building does on its ground floor.
Why Jamaica has gaming lounges and not casinos
This is the part most visitors get wrong. Jamaica passed a Casino Gaming Act in 2010, and it is still on the books, but it was written narrowly. It permits casino gaming only inside an approved integrated resort development, meaning a large mixed tourism precinct with hotels, rooms, attractions and shopping, not a standalone gambling house. The Casino Gaming Commission was created to regulate that model, and more than fifteen years after the Act was passed, no casino resort has opened in Jamaica. Regulations to operationalise the framework were still being approved in 2025.
What exists instead is the gaming lounge: a licensed room of video gaming machines, regulated under the betting and gaming laws rather than the casino law, usually attached to a bar and a kitchen. Macau is one of those. So is Acropolis. The category is a legal outcome, not a marketing choice, and it is why gambling in Kingston looks the way it does. Understand that going in and you will not be disappointed by the absence of a roulette table.
What we could not find
We have not found a reliable opening date, a founder or any Jamaican press coverage of Macau's launch. Listings for it start appearing around the mid 2010s. Rather than guess, we will say plainly that this venue's own story is not documented, and leave it there.
What it costs and when it opens
Entry is free. Opening runs from around 11am, with closing at roughly 3am Monday to Thursday and 4am or 5am on Friday and Saturday. Sunday hours are listed inconsistently across sources, so ring before a Sunday visit. Dress code is smart casual, which in Kingston means no beach slides and no vests.
Food is pub fare with Caribbean handling: wings, wraps, burgers, ribs, pasta, salads and seafood, in the ordinary Kingston bar range. Cocktails are mixed to order rather than poured from a gun. Gaming is pay as you play on the machines.
What it is actually like
The two halves of the building attract different people at different hours, which is the useful thing to know. The gaming room runs all day and is quiet, air conditioned and functional. The rooftop is where the venue earns its reputation: lounge seating, regular tables and a private cabana, with mountain views to the north and the city lights to the south, and it comes alive in the evening.
It is popular and the rooftop is not large. Turning up on a Friday at nine without a reservation is how people end up drinking downstairs. Book the roof.
If you are going to play the machines, set a number before you sit down and stop at it. A gaming lounge is designed the way it is for a reason.
How it fits a day
Macau works as the early evening, roughly 6pm to 10pm, on a Kingston night that is going somewhere later. The rooftop is best at dusk when the mountains are still visible and the lights are coming up, so aim to be seated before sunset rather than after. It is a short run from here to Ardenne Road, New Kingston or Constant Spring for the rest of the night, which is exactly how we use it: view first, then the loud room.
