Macau, China, Aug. 27, 2025 (Lusa) - Macau Legend has warned that the gambling operator's losses in the first half of 2025 are expected to soar, mainly due to the already announced closure of the Legend Palace “satellite casino” at the end of the year.
The company forecast a loss of 1.42 billion Hong Kong dollars (€157.2 million) by July, more than 12 times higher than in the same period of 2024, according to a statement released on Tuesday.
In the note, sent to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Macau Legend pointed to a drop of 1.29 billion Hong Kong dollars (€142.6 million) in the value of the Doca dos Pescadores development.
This is after the gaming concessionaire SJM decided in June to end the operation of seven “satellite casinos” by 31 December, including the Legend Palace, located in Doca dos Pescadores.
The “satellite casinos”, under the control of three of the six gambling concessionaires operating in Macau, are managed by other companies and are a legacy of the Portuguese administration that existed before gambling was liberalised in the territory in 2002.
When the legislation regulating casinos was amended in 2022, the end of 2025 was set as the deadline for these gambling centres to cease operating.
Of the “satellite casinos” operating in Macau, nine belong to SJM, one to Galaxy and another to Melco, which also has six Mocha clubs - gaming machine parlours.
SJM has decided to attempt to acquire ownership of the hotels where two “satellite casinos” are located, namely Ponte 16 and Casino Royal Arc, and to request that the authorities assume direct management of the spaces.
At the end of 2023, Macau Legend chairman Li Chu Kwan had already said that the group intended to close its projects in Cambodia and Cabo Verde by the end of 2025.
However, in July, during a visit to Macau, Cabo Verde's minister for internal affairs told Lusa that the government would give the company a "last chance" and promised "an alternative" for the unfinished hotel-casino in Praia.
"The developer has had several opportunities and has this last chance. It says it will have an alternative and the government is waiting for that alternative to be presented, even while the process of reversing the project is underway," said Paulo Rocha.
In November, the Cabo Verdean authorities initiated the process of revoking the hotel-casino and other unfinished Macau Legend projects on the islet of Santa Maria and the Gamboa seafront in the city of Praia.
Paulo Rocha said that the Cape Verdean government had given the company founded by David Chow Kam Fai 60 days to present a new proposal to complete the project. Still, he acknowledged that he didn't know when this period "started to run".
"If it doesn't present a proposal within the timeframe given, the reversion process will be finalised and then the government will look for other, probable, possible investors," said the minister.
VQ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
