The casino inside the recently-opened Macau Roosevelt Hotel at Taipa began operation on June 29, the city’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, confirmed to GGRAsia.
The hotel had a soft launch last week. The gaming venue is a “relocation” of Casino Macau Jockey Club, the gaming bureau – also known by its Portuguese acronym DICJ – noted. The Casino Macau Jockey Club had operated under SJM Holdings Ltd’s gaming licence, and – like Macau Roosevelt Hotel – had been a venue close to the club’s horse racing track facilities. A visit by GGRAsia to the Casino Macau Jockey Club site indicated it had now closed.
“In regards to SJM’s relocation of its Casino Macau Jockey Club to the Roosevelt hotel location, please be informed that the gaming tables in operation in the Macau Roosevelt hotel location are those that are used in previous locations [sic],” DICJ said in an emailed reply to GGRAsia on Monday.
The regulator also noted that no additional request for gaming table allocation under the Macau government’s table cap had been submitted by SJM Holdings for the Macau Roosevelt Hotel’s casino (pictured).
In a note issued on May 29, brokerage Union Gaming Securities Asia Ltd estimated the Macau Roosevelt Hotel’s casino “could have 25 to 35 tables and around 100 slots”.
GGRAsia approached SJM Holdings for comment on the start of casino operations at the Macau Roosevelt Hotel and for information on what part of SJM Holdings’ operation had supplied the gaming tables, and how many tables were or would be installed.
We also asked the company whether a third-party provider was managing the casino on behalf of SJM Holdings – an arrangement known in Macau as a service agreement.
No reply to those questions had been received by the time this story went online.
Approved service providers can in effect piggyback on a licence belonging to any one of the city’s six casino concessionaires. In practice, only SJM Holdings, Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd and Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd operate such a third-party system. The Macau government imposed in 2008 a moratorium on new service agreements.
The Macau Jockey Club casino closed in 2004 but reopened in May 2014. As of that date it was managed by Hong Kong-listed casino equipment supplier Paradise Entertainment Ltd, a firm chaired by Jay Chun. Since January this year, Paradise Entertainment has had only a revenue sharing agreement for live-dealer electronic table games at the site, the firm said in a March filing.
The Macau Roosevelt Hotel – described as a five-star property – is to provide approximately 360 guest rooms, according to local media reports.
