Global casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd says three venues part of its network of Macau-based slot-machine parlours – branded as Mocha Clubs – “will cease operations before the end of 2025”. The same is to happen to Grand Dragon Casino, a third-party promoted operation in Macau’s Taipa district, running under a so-called “satellite casino” agreement.
Melco Resorts announced in a press release on Monday that, “after considering the company’s overall development strategy and in accordance with Macau law, Grand Dragon Casino and three Mocha Clubs, namely Mocha Hotel Royal, Mocha Kuong Fat and Mocha Grand Dragon Hotel, will cease operations before the end of 2025.”
It added: “The employees working at these venues will be assigned to work at other properties of the company in Macau, which will secure continued employment for these employees within their current job duties.”
Melco Resorts stated that the gaming tables and electronic gaming machines operating at the affected venues would also “be reallocated to, and continue operations at, other casinos or gaming areas of the company in Macau”.
The Macau government is holding this Monday (June 9) in the afternoon, a press conference on “measures” to be adopted after the end – this calendar year – of a government-mandated transition period for satellite casinos.
The Grand Dragon Casino focuses – according to Melco Resorts’ 2024 annual report – on mass market table games.
In 2024, Mocha Clubs had an average of approximately 882 gaming machines in operation (excluding approximately 134 gaming machines at Altira Macau), according to the parent company. Besides Mocha Hotel Royal, Mocha Kuong Fat and Mocha Grand Dragon Hotel, other locations include, according to the brand’s website: Mocha Altira, inside the Altira Macau hotel-casino run by Melco Resorts; Mocha Inner Harbour; Mocha Hotel Sintra; and Mocha Hotel Golden Dragon.
The firm said in its Monday release it would “apply for the relevant authorisations and approvals from the Macau government for three Mocha Clubs, namely Mocha Inner Harbour, Mocha Hotel Sintra and Mocha Golden Dragon, to continue operations after December 2025, subject to compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements.”
“Mocha Clubs focus primarily on general mass market patrons, including day-trip customers, outside the conventional casino setting,” the firm’s 2024 annual report stated.
Grand Dragon Casino had an average of approximately 16 gaming tables in 2024.
For the years 2024, 2023 and 2022, operating revenues generated from Mocha and the Grand Dragon Casino amounted to US$122.6 million, US$117.7 million and US$76.4 million, representing 2.6 percent, 3.1 percent and 5.7 percent of Melco Resorts’ total operating revenues, respectively.
Macau currently has 11 satellite casinos that continue to operate under the 10-year gaming concessions that started in January 2023. Nine of those 11 satellite casinos are under SJM Holdings Ltd’s licence; one is under Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd’s permit; and one – Grand Dragon Casino – is under 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”.
They will not be allowed to take part in other traditional business practices for the satellite sector, such as having a share of gaming revenue. A three-year grace period from 2023 until the end of this year currently permits the latter system to persist.
In its 2024 annual report, Melco Resorts had given notice that, “under the Macau Gaming Operations Law, concessionaires, such as Melco Resorts, may continue to operate games of chance in casinos in properties that are not owned by them for a period of three years from January 1, 2023 under authorisation of the Chief Executive of Macau.”
It added: “Such three-year period ends on December 31, 2025, following which the concessionaires may only continue to operate games of chance in properties that are not owned by them by engaging a managing company, with any such engagement subject to approval of the Chief Executive of Macau… We may be required to cease our operations at Mocha Clubs and Grand Dragon Casino.”
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.
