No its not illegal to play on-line. It's just next to impossible to open an account from Hong Kong.
If you have an existing account then you will be fine playing.

also not illegal to play for money right? wow this would be really cool!

thanks for the quick answer!!

actualie online gambling is illegal in hong kong

Two words: Proxy Server

No need. Websites are not blocked in Hong Kong. They are in China, don't think they are in Macau.
I know some online poker websites do not allow you to open an account if you're in HK.
I live in China and play on Stars (set up my account and deposited from there, with a French cc though). The pain is to get the software in China as the websites are blocked, but once you have the software installed, it works no problem.

Talking about stars, anybody else disappointed about the satties for APPT Macau? Most of them are daytime during the week (when people work in Asia). The 800 qualifier is at 5:30 AM on monday (wtf), the only viable option for asians is the 475 at 2:30 PM on Sunday.
There are also 22 rebuys every evening, but I doubt they will ever fill.

I stand corrected. Max buy-in for Lisboa 10/20 and Wynn 10/25 is $3000.

Found out some more cool stuff at Wynn the other day.

+ Starting June 1 (tomorrow!), there will be 3 additional tables. They've added a "VIP Room" for 100/200 and higher, but don't worry if you're a lower limit player because that just means all the original 8 tables will be used for 10/25 and 25/50.

+ A new promotion for 10/25 and 25/50 is apparently in the works. Every so often, a table and seat will be chosen at random and the player in that seat will get to draw out of a bag for a cash prize.

+ New chairs are coming!

ok so i am thinking about trying to play poker in macau for a living for an half year till i am not sure if i want to take any risks by playing onlinepoker... but just playing livepoker fulltime is something i want to try anyway so i think it would be a cool thing

but till it would take a long time to driver every day from HK to macau and back i want to ask you what are the cheapest hotels/motels in which i could stay the 5 days per weak i would play to play fulltime? anybody with some information?

how would you approach my situation?

How are you driving from Hong Kong to Macau, exactly?

as much as i know the ferry station in HK is the only option to drive to macau aight?

I think he could drive through Shenzhen, up to Zhuhai, and then into Macau, but it would be sort of a long drive.

Aren't they trying to build a bridge from Hong Kong to Macau to be complete by 2012 or something. Or is that just PR speak?

i will be in HK in october and i would like to play 10/20 and maybe some 25/50 or 50/100. still have 2 questions

1) is it possible to use money from my stars account to buy into cash games and tournaments at pokerstars macau?

2) i've heard rumors about locals colluding at the lisboa. has anyone heard similar things?

There building a gigantic bridge connecting Zhu Hai, HK, and Macau together....not sure when it will be finished...

And, it is possible to drive from HK to Macau, but like the other guy said, you'd have to drive through Zhu hai, which would be totally out of the way coming from HK. The Ferry is your quickest way to Macau from HK (Besides a helicopter).

Also...even if you wanted to drive, how are you going too?

In order to drive in Macau, you must have a Macau license plate...those things cost about $30,000, if you don't have residency there.

Also- All the people saying online poker is blocked or whatever in China are wrong. You can access all sites...the only issue I've had in the past 2.5 years here is that pokerstars must already be installed on your computer. You won't be able to download the actual software.

Sometimes when trying to access stars it won't open right away-(saying you need to download new software)....too avoid this, just open up Pstars through "My Computer", and it works fine every time.

You can use your PokerStars account to register for tournaments at PokerStars Macau poker room. Winnings can be paid out in cash or back into your PokerStars account. However, you can not withdraw cash directly like a bank machine for cash games.

Next Macau Poker Cup (July 9-12) is up on new PokerStars Macau website: http://www.pokerstarsmacau.com/macau_cup/schedule/

You can use your PokerStars account to register for tournaments at PokerStars Macau poker room. Winnings can be paid out in cash or back into your PokerStars account. However, you can not withdraw cash directly like a bank machine for cash games.

Next Macau Poker Cup (July 9-12) is up on new PokerStars Macau website: http://www.pokerstarsmacau.com/macau_cup/schedule/

Good luck,

Fred

Regarding rumours of locals colluding at the Lisboa - In my experience more often than not instances of suspected collusion are not actually collusion. Most cases can be put down to misunderstandings due to language barriers (as the tables are not English only) or inexperienced poker players who are not aware at that time of correct poker etiquette. However, there is always the possibility that players may try to collude and if you are playing at a table and you have reason to believe that collusion is taking place please address your concerns to the supervisory staff or room manager on duty at that time and your concerns will be taken seriously.

You sure about his Fred? If so, I will make a deposit into my Stars account now so I dont have to bring as much cash when I go to Macau.

Is it only you that know this or does your team know too? The reason I ask is because last year when I went there you gave the same information but as soon as I got to GL the staff said "no" and they have never heard of such a thing.

They were really nice people, I think they were Philipino (guy and girl ) Would be so convenient if I can just buy in through my Stars account.

Please double check that and make sure the staff knows. Would suck to find out that you cant do that when I get there. Id rather know now. Thanks.

Hi stressed,

I am 100% sure since I put them online myself . In fact, if you go to PokerStars right now and look under the "Events tab --> PSM" you can see all the live tournaments at PokerStars Macau that are available for registration at this very moment. You can see that other players have already registered for next week's Macau Poker Cup events.

FYI You do need to register earlier as the online cut-off time is generally 1-hour prior to the beginning of the tournament. Players coming from out-of-town definitely like the convenience of this system for the exact reason you mentioned before.

- Fred

Wonderful. Thanks.

1) already answered

2) Yes. After I had some bad experiences in that room I refused to go there until PokerStars moved in. Although they only handle tournament, it seems as if their being there helped clean things up a little bit, and I think the room is mostly fine now. Exceptions would be the rule about switching tables and only being able to buy in for the max-buyin, thus effectively allowing people to rathole, and of course the "bet out of turn" rules that are unorthodox to say the least. That being said, make sure you know the rules before you play and you shouldn't have any trouble these days.

If you want to get a feeling for how it "was" though - there are some stories further back in this thread

Its been changed. Now if you request to change tables you have to put down the same amount of $$ as from the previous table thus eliminating ratholing/hit&running.
I don't know how strongly they are enforcing this new rule (I only heard of this since last week) but I have been told to put all my chips on the new table when I requested a change.

This rule will be enforced to a high standard - although it was only implemented on Friday so give the staff some time to get used to the change. But players told us that they wanted protection against ratholing, so the change was made. It's all part of the constant improvement process (Grand Lisboa was first to run cashgames in Macau and since then, there has been constant improvement).
Feedback question: How to apply this rule properly to new tables? It doesn't seem quite fair to let someone with a huge stack jump into a table full of starting stacks, OTOH I can't see that waiting for a set length of time/play makes much difference (unless it's quite a length of time).
Our partnership with PokerStars has combined the respectability of the largest online poker cardroom in the world with Macau's largest and most experienced gaming company. This partnership is great and has led to easing some misperceptions about the room; although I tend to find phrases like "cleaning up the room" a little hard to deal with, having been part of the Grand Lisboa effort since day one and myself (as part of a great team) having put huge effort into making sure our poker games are run both cleanly and fairly. It's all about perception I guess, and if the room is now percieved to be "cleaner" and a great place to play poker, then all the better, that's what we all want. As always, please raise any problems (here, by PM or in person) and we can work on eliminating them.
Collusion is a serious matter and is taken quite seriously. Any players suspected of collusion will be made to play seperately and in event of further problems, banned. As the games run in chinese and english, there are misunderstandings sometimes but any serious suspicion should be raised and will be monitored.

Actually, this is incorrect.

Online poker is legal in HK, however, casino gaming and sports betting are not.

Where players run into issues is depositing and withdrawing from online accounts, and there are a few communities that aid in this.

Ok I guess it would be more accurate to say that it hasn't been tested in court whether the definition of 'unlawful gambling' extends to poker, or whether it just covers betting.

(Risk of being arrested for it is probably close to zero anyway)