Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd, one of Macau’s six casino concessionaires, has announced that the Waldo Casino (pictured) “will cease operation by the end of this year due to commercial considerations”. The latter is a third-party promoted operation in the Macau peninsula, running under a so-called “satellite casino” agreement with Galaxy Entertainment.
Galaxy Entertainment’s employees “working at the casino will be reallocated to its other properties and casinos,” the casino operator said in a statement sent to GGRAsia on Monday.
It added: “Related departments will discuss the best options with the team members and provide them with a series of vocational training programs to assist them in adapting to their new working environment.”
Galaxy Entertainment’s announcement followed similar updates earlier in the day by Macau market rivals SJM Holdings Ltd and Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd.
SJM Holdings said it would cease operating seven of its current nine satellite casinos by year-end. Only Ponte 16 and L’Arc Macau would be expected to continue operations beyond 2025 – in order to ensure that, SJM Holdings announced plans to acquire the respective properties where those two casinos are based, meaning they would no longer classify as “satellite operations”.
As for Melco Resorts, it had said three venues that are part of its network of Macau-based slot-machine parlours – branded as Mocha Clubs – would “cease operations before the end of 2025”. The same was to happen to Grand Dragon Casino, a third-party promoted operation in Macau’s Taipa district, running under a “satellite casino” agreement with Melco Resorts.
Macau currently has 11 satellite casinos that have continued to operate under the 10-year gaming concessions that started in January 2023. Nine of those 11 satellite casinos are under SJM Holdings’ licence; one is under Galaxy Entertainment’s permit; and one – Grand Dragon Casino – is via Melco Resorts’ gaming rights.
Under the city’s revamped gaming regulatory framework – coinciding with the current concessions of the six Macau operators – from 2026, the third-party investors in satellite casinos will only be permitted to earn a “management fee” via a “management company”.
Following today’s series of announcements by, respectively, Galaxy Entertainment, SJM Holdings and Melco Resorts, in practice no third-party investor in satellite casinos will see a transformation into a “management company” after year-end.
As per the announcements, all satellite casinos are to cease operations, except two – Ponte 16 and L’ Arc Macau –, which are to become self-promoted operations of SJM Holdings, once the respective buildings where they are based are acquired by the casino group.
According to a Thursday report from CLSA Ltd, there could be possible upgrades in gaming table yields for some Macau operators from likely closure of loss-making satellite venues.
