Recently I was witness to a raid at a high-end sauna on a busy night.  There was something like a two-hour wait in the lounge before being
invited to view the girls.  No lineups were organized in the lounge area.  Furthermore, none of the staffers gave any indication there was anything
amiss.  God forbid the establishment should lose any business.

Once I finally got to my room, my provider said "things weren't safe," that is, there was a raid alert for all Macau saunas.  If anyone can comment,
how do these heightened awareness levels propagate out --- are there informants within the Macau police or intelligence chatter amongst all
sex establishments or is it a scheduled thing like the third weekend of every month?

About twenty minutes into my session, all hell broke loose.  A light started flashing followed by furious knocking on the door for my provider to
leave the room.  Staffers periodically poked their heads in to ensure no condoms, etc. were in open view.

I sat there with my dick in my hands for about 5-10 minutes before deciding to see what was going on.  When I left my room, I saw another confused punter standing around in his robe.  I saw no police, and no girls.  But everything was quiet and calm in contrast to the frenetic knocking and scurrying about just moments earlier.  When I got to the locker area I saw the lobby area was walled off!  A bit perturbing.  A mainland punter asked a staffer, "I thought this was all legal?" to which the staffer responded that these temporary lockdowns are routine and that customers have nothing to worry about at least with respect to law enforcement.  I told her I didn't want to continue my session after the "coast was clear" and was permitted to leave.  The front desk insisted on full payment as they claimed business activities would resume momentarily.  But the whole episode just killed my mood and after a bit of haggling I was allowed to pay half.

I'd like to know about other people's experiences, especially in Macau where for a long time I believed organized prostitution to be taxable and legal.  
A quick Google search however indicated I was wrong.

From what I have observed regarding these raids, the customers should not run into trouble. This kind of raid is targeted to those girls without working permit.

Whether it is legal or not, I am not entirely certain on this. But given the Sauna has been around for years, the 'extra services' has likely become generally accepted by both sides. It is often that the establishment is given a heads up to get their shit in order, when there is a raid on the day or week. I prefer saying work permit inspection. If a smart girl tells you a raid alert is ON, you should high tail out and try to negotiate a refund or voucher for the next day. There is no upside to be in the midst of it.

A few sauna girls have told me, generally you will notice all the Mainlanders girls are off work, and only all those staff with "blue card" work permits or local Macanese are told to be on duty. Your 2 hour wait, was a result of the smaller pool of girls. After the inspection, things do go back to normal, and the Mainlanders are back the next day or shift. The inspections are not scheduled, but the heads up can be accruate to the day. How this info is passed out or services rendered, I do not know.

Totally agree with Phaychay and would like to add 2 more comments:

(1) The joint HK-Macau-Guangdong anti-crime operation should be a warning for the mongers. Normally, the raid is more frequent within the period of such operation.  

(2) Normally, the saunas got heads up the day before the raid. When you walks up on the day of raid, the staff at the reception would suggest you to come back after the operation. Besides, nowadays, many Japanese and Korean WGs also do not have work permit. Thus, basically a very very small no. of WGs stay in the sauna during the raid.

I dated a girl from one of the major saunas for three years and they provide fake everything.  They even have phony passports.  The only difference on the passports is the birth date to show that they are all younger than they actually are.

I dated a girl from one of the major saunas for three years and they provide fake everything.  They even have phony passports.  The only difference on the passports is the birth date to show that they are all younger than they actually are.

No, my girl was 39 when we started going out.  Her official passport reflected her actual age.  The one the sauna provided for her said she was 32, but she started working there four years before we met.  We had planned for her to immigrate here and my immigration attorney wanted a copy of her work permit, but the sort of freaked her out because it was a phony as well

Some years back i was at East Spa when there seemed to be an immigration check going on big time....first were there having fun, lot of east spa girls, and im talking to the manager Kevin, when he gets a call that there was some issue at Sanado, so he had to go sort that out... he returns a short time later with all the girls from Sanado, full service and side service girls, East Spa was brimming with hot women that evening

And then suddenly they all vanished, and yes we were told there would be 2 hrs or so with no full service on offer, and then several immigration officers and police appeared...it threw my friends off, we were all in jacuzzi pool, and they were worried. One officer i guess saw their look of concern and came over to tell us, don't worry, we're just checking work visa's etc....and
thats what they did, as mentioned earlier some girls were sequested away while the others had visas checked etc

2 hrs later, boom services resumed as normal with kevin pumping up the party atmosphere to make up for the delays

Considering that prostitution in Macau is legal I assume the raids are for illegal places and workers without the right documents, such as visas and permits. Punters should be safe unless the girl you're with is underage.