Despite scheduled to cease operations by the end of this year, a number of satellite casinos – mostly located in downtown Macau – remain packed with patrons, according to GGRAsia spot checks. These satellite venues offer live-dealer baccarat tables with minimum bets far lower than those featured on the mains floors of nearby casinos directly run by the city’s gaming concessionaires.
Minimum bets for live baccarat table games at satellite casinos located across the ZAPE and NAPE districts of the peninsula ranged from HKD200 (US$25.5) to HKD3,000, with most of these venues offering bets ranging from HKD300 to HKD500 on their main floors, according to GGRAsia observations.
Several of these satellite gaming venues have set “high limit” areas for traditional baccarat play, which account for a small proportion of their respective table inventory. Minimum bets for the high-limit baccarat play at these venues ranged from HKD1,000 to HKD3,000, with denominations of HKD1,000 and HKD2,000 the most common.
GGRAsia on Thursday and Friday walked the mass-play floors of a number of satellite venues. These included: Casino Kam Pek Paradise; Casino Fortuna; Casino Landmark; Casino L’Arc Macau; Casino Legend Palace; Casino Casa Real; and Casino Emperor Palace. All these venues are located in downtown Macau, relying on the gaming rights of casino firm SJM Holdings Ltd.
GGRAsia also visited Casino Waldo, the satellite gaming venue under the licence of casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd.
Some of the satellite gaming venues – Casino Kam Pek Paradise, Casino Fortuna, Casino Landmark, Casino L’Arc and Casino Casa Real – had busy floors and decent customer traffic at the time of the checks.
Most of these venues have limited or no electronic gaming products on their premises. The exception is Casino Kam Pek Paradise, which features slot machines and electronic table games, as well as live multi-game (LMG) stadiums for baccarat play, the latter offering minimum bets ranging from HKD20 to HKD50.
In contrast, LMG stadiums on offer at directly-run premises of Macau casino operators in the same districts offered a wider and pricier range of minimum bets for baccarat play.
For comparison, GGRAsia did spot checks at some casino premises on the peninsula directly run by the city’s concessionaires. These included: Grand Lisboa, the Macau peninsula flagship property of SJM Holdings; MGM Macau, operated by MGM China Holdings Ltd; Wynn Macau, run by Wynn Macau Ltd; StarWorld, run by Galaxy Entertainment; as well as Sands Macao, run by Sands China Ltd.
These properties had live-dealer baccarat tables with minimum bets of HKD1,000, HKD1,500 and HKD2,000; while their high-limit bet levels were mostly in the HKD2,000 and HKD3,000 denominations.
Among the directly run gaming premises on the peninsula, Grand Lisboa and Sands Macao offered some of the lowest minimum bets for baccarat play, at HKD300 and HKD500.
Macau currently has 11 satellite casinos operating under the 10-year gaming concessions that began in January 2023. Nine of the 11 are run via SJM Holdings’ licence; one under Galaxy Entertainment’s permit; and one via Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd’s gaming rights.
Under the city’s revamped gaming regulatory framework – coinciding with the current concessions of the six Macau operators – from next year, the third-party investors in satellite casinos will only be permitted to earn a “management fee” via a “management company”.
On June 9, SJM Holdings announced plans to close seven of its satellite casinos by year-end. Only Ponte 16 and L’Arc Macau are expected to continue operations beyond 2025. To that end, the casino firm announced plans to acquire the respective properties where those two casinos are located, meaning they would become self-promoted casinos. The move still requires approval from the Macau government.
The announced closure of Macau’s satellite casinos by year-end was a “negative surprise”, and the transition will in likelihood be more complex for SJM Holdings than the other concessionaires that have satellite partners, said various brokerages in recent commentary.
