Local gaming oversight group, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), has received a request for the Macau Jockey Club (MJC) Casino to move to the new Roosevelt Hotel property, located on the grounds of the group’s land in Taipa.
The DICJ notes that it has already received the application from gaming concessionaire SJM Holdings to relocate the Casino Macau Jockey Club to the Roosevelt Hotel location.
Although the signage outside the Roosevelt Hotel property has already been changed to reflect the shift, the DICJ noted in its response to Business Daily’s enquiries that ‘the application is still under processing where no final decision has been made yet’.
Regarding the number of tables for the new casino, the MJC was unable to provide any related information by the time this story went to press.
A report by analysts at Union Gaming drew attention to the issue, with the analysts estimating that the new casino might be larger in size than the existing one, and perceiving that it will have a much greater focus on table games, with an estimate of 25 to 35 tables and around 100 slot machines.
The MJC was also unable to provide any information in regards to the number of tables for the new casino, by the time of publication.
With only four live tables operating at the current MJC casino, it is suggested that ‘a greater allocation of tables’ will be needed for the new gaming venue.
The analyst group assumes that tables ‘would either need to come from SJM’s existing inventory or from the government’.
Satellite decline
In terms of the general table allocation in the city, the analysts estimate that 482 tables will be the quota to be allocated by the authority as it sees fit through to 2022, as the group assumes that the two upcoming casinos – MGM Cotai and Grand Lisboa Palace – will be getting 150 tables each.
Meanwhile, there was a 16 per cent decline in 2016 for the satellite casino segment of SJM, with the analysts perceiving the drop to be attributable ‘in large part to outdated facilities and lack of amenities’. Union Gaming believe the new casino at Roosevelt might focus on the VIP segment, or could be going after the niche market of non-Chinese gamblers.
According to official data from the DICJ, for 2016, the MJC generated a total revenue from horserace betting of MOP141 million, a decline of 15 per cent from MOP166 million in 2015.
In fact, the horserace-betting operator has failed to make an annual profit since 2005. As at the end of 2015, its accumulative losses totalled MOP3.96 billion for the past decade, according to the company’s 2015 annual report.
The MJC’s chief executive, Thomas Li Chu Kwan, said previously that he is putting efforts in to changing the company’s image to a leisure attraction, by upgrading facilities and holding international-level competitions.
Having held the monopoly for the horseracing and betting business in the city since 1978, the company will see its current horserace-betting concession expire on August 31 this year, however the chief executive said he is confident that it will obtain an extension of its business license from the government.
Meanwhile, the Macau Roosevelt Hotel continues to further postpone its opening and the exact opening date is still not officially announced.
In February, the property’s General Manager, Roberto Simone, said in an interview with local Chinese-language newspaper Macao Daily that the opening of the new property was expected to be in the middle of this month.
The hotel was initially scheduled to open in 2015. The opening date was later postponed to the first half of 2016, then to the first quarter of this year. A company representative, Arron Iu, said in July 2015 that the property would not provide any gaming venue.
The new hotel will feature a total of 368 rooms.
