Playing ball

By
Sheyla Zandonai

The old Jai Alai will reopen its doors this year, renamed the Jai Alai Palace. Jai Alai, or Casino Pelota Basca, was one of the first casinos established under the monopoly of the Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau (STDM) in 1975.
Replacing the gambling activity of Hotel Estoril, it was an early but important development in ZAPE, an area reclaimed from the sea in the 1930s. Back then, Jai Alai stood alone amid the vegetable fields, a scene that many people in Macau today can still recall.
Following the development of the Outer Harbour ferry terminal in the early 1960s, it contributed towards the shift of gambling activity from the west side of the Macau peninsula to the east, facing the Pearl River Delta.
Until the Outer Harbour was built by STDM – back when jetfoils were still called hydrofoils – ferries would dock at the Inner Harbour. Perhaps the contemporary version will be the near-complete passenger terminal at Pac-On, which will channel mass tourism toward Cotai. Or so it is hoped.
Jai Alai has one of the most intriguing casino names in town. Taken from the Basque language – the origin of which nobody seems to know for sure – jai alai is the name of a sport that originated and flourished in the Pyrenees Mountains, which topographically unite Spain and France.
Pelota (Spanish for “ball”) games were played at the Jai Alai stadium in Macau from its founding in 1975 until 1990. Picture four men each wearing a long, claw-shaped hard glove with which they frantically propel a speeding ball back and forth against a wall. That’s jai alai. Its Chinese name, “return force,” literally captures those movements, as opposed to the more cheerful Basque meaning, “merry celebration.” It must have seemed very exotic in 1970s Macau. But then, this is a city that accommodates all manner of persons and activities.
A much longer story is needed to fill in the gaps between Jai Alai’s debut and its uncertain future. But if there is one thing the slender, geometric signage ??JAI ALAI on top of the new building conveys, it is calm confidence. Retrofitted in a surprisingly low-key, matte silver shell, there is no sculptural decoration, no arrogant spires: a bold statement of Jai Alai’s resilience, compensating for its seedy though colourful past. This is a part of Macau’s gambling heritage in the making.