Macau, China, June 9, 2025 (Lusa) - Melco Resorts and Entertainment announced on Monday that it will close a casino and three gaming machine rooms in Macau by the end of 2025, but promised not to lay off any workers.
In a statement, Melco said that the Grand Dragon casino and three of the six electronic gaming rooms, known as Mocha Clubs, "will cease operations before the end of 2025."
Employees will be assigned to work at other company properties in Macau, ensuring the continuity of their employment, the operator stated.
The Grand Dragon casino's gaming tables and electronic gaming machines will also be "transferred and will continue to operate at other casinos or gaming areas of the company in Macau," Melco said.
The semi-autonomous region of Macau, the world's gambling capital and the only place in China where casino gambling is legal, sets quotas for gaming tables and machines for each of the six concessionaires.
Melco said it will ask the government to allow it to continue operating the other three Mocha Clubs gaming machine rooms.
Grand Dragon and Mocha Clubs are Melco's only properties under the “satellite casino” model, in which the spaces are managed by other companies, which pay the concessionaire a percentage of the revenue.
Satellite casinos are a legacy of Macau's Portuguese administration and existed before gambling was liberalised in the Chinese special administrative region in 2002.
The revision of gambling legislation in 2022 set December 2025 as the deadline for the closure of “satellite casinos”, leaving several issues unresolved, such as the future of workers in these venues.
The Macau Government has scheduled a press conference for today on the measures to be taken after the transition period for “satellite casinos”.
The revision only allows “satellite casinos” to continue operating after 1 January 2026 by signing new contracts, in which the operator only receives a fixed commission and not a share of the revenue.
Nine of the 11 satellite casinos currently in operation are under the umbrella of SJM Resorts, an operator founded by the late gambling magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun (1921-2020), who held a monopoly on gambling until 2002.
Melco, which also operates in Cyprus and the Philippines and is currently building a casino in Sri Lanka, is led by Lawrence Ho Yau-lung, the son of Stanley Ho.
VQ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
