GGRAsia – Casino Eastern shuts as linked Macau hotel quarantine place

Casino Eastern shuts as linked Macau hotel quarantine place

Mar 24, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Casino Eastern (pictured), located within the site of the five-star Grand Lapa Hotel on Macau peninsula, has been closed temporarily from 3pm on Tuesday (March 24). It follows the hotel portion of property being requisitioned the previous night – for an unspecified duration – by the Macau government to quarantine people arriving in the city. So said the city’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, in a Tuesday press statement.

The bureau, also known by the Portuguese acronym DICJ, additionally noted in a reply to GGRAsia that – following the temporary shutdown of Casino Eastern – the city’s total number of gaming tables in operation remained at approximately 5,400, which represents about 80 percent of the local market’s table inventory.

Casino Eastern was one of 16 so-called satellite or third party-promoted gaming venues operating under the gaming rights of SJM Holdings Ltd, according to the latter firm’s filings. After the closure of Casino Eastern at Grand Lapa Hotel, Macau has in operation an aggregate of 36 gaming venues.

Two other Macau gaming venues that are run under the gaming rights of SJM Holdings are currently under suspension, DICJ announced last week.

One of them is Casino Taipa, which is located at the Regency Art Hotel in Taipa and identified by SJM Holdings as a “self-promoted” casino. Casino Taipa had been closed temporarily from 3pm on March 19 as the hotel property was used by the government for quarantine purpose.

Another gaming property is Casino Macau Jockey Club inside the Macau Roosevelt Hotel, also located in Taipa, which stayed shut beyond the March 20 reopening deadline originally set for all casinos in the Macau market, following a 15-day shutdown last month as the local authorities worked to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. The prolonged suspension of Casino Macau Jockey Club is due to renovation works at the site, DICJ explained at the time.