The government of Cabo Verde has completed the takeover of a stalled casino resort project in Praia, the capital of the West African island nation, from hotel and casino services firm Macau Legend Development Ltd.
The decision was confirmed in a government press release on Sunday.
The Cabo Verde government terminated Macau Legend’s concession to develop and operate the casino resort project in November 2024. At the time, the authorities said the company had “flagrantly and repeatedly” breached its obligations regarding the project’s timeline and investment commitments.
Macau Legend’s casino resort was to be located on a 152,700-square-metre (1.6 million sq ft) plot of land on Santiago Island.
In its Sunday statement, the government said it “took every possible step to ensure the implementation of the investment project, which it believed would represent added value for the country and its citizens”.
It added: “However, the concessionaire companies ultimately demonstrated that they lacked the capacity to fulfil the contractual obligations to which they had committed. In these circumstances, the government was compelled to terminate all contractual instruments entered into with the companies and to order the reversion of all assets granted or constructed under the concessions.”
Macau Legend officially began construction in early 2016 on what was described at the time as a EUR250-million (US$290.6-million at current rates) project. The Cabo Verde scheme, (depicted in an artist’s rendering), was to include luxury hotels, a casino, a conference centre and a marina.
Macau Legend owns a tourism complex known as Macau Fisherman’s Wharf, a waterfront area close to the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal on the Macau peninsula. The venue previously housed a casino called Legend Palace, promoted by Macau Legend under a services agreement with Macau gaming operator SJM Holdings Ltd.
Legend Palace ceased operations on November 12, 2025, as part of a broader policy drive to eliminate the traditional satellite casino management model from the Macau gaming market by the end of 2025.
In September, Macau Legend reported a net loss of nearly HKD1.42 billion (US$182.3 million), mainly due to an impairment loss of just over HKD1.27 billion related to its satellite gaming operation.
