Macau, China,Aug 28, 2025 (Lusa) - Macau's Portuguese MP José Pereira Coutinho said on Thursday that he fears" a new wave of unemployment in the region, "in the medium or long term", due to the announced closure of at least eight “satellite casinos”.
In June, three of the six gaming concessionaires operating in Macau—SJM, Galaxy, and Melco—informed the authorities that they would be closing all their satellite casinos by December 31.
At the time, the Secretary for Administration and Justice, André Cheong Weng Chon, demanded that the operators provide jobs for the 5,600 local workers affected.
André Cheong also promised to "closely monitor the situation", something that only reassures José Pereira Coutinho "in the near future".
"Many workers [from the “satellite casinos”] still don't know where they're going to be placed," while other employees have been posted to jobs that are very different from the ones they held, the MP lamented.
Pereira Coutinho said he feared that, "in the medium or long term", employees could be pressured "to resign because they can't fulfil the demands" of the concessionaires.
The “satellite casinos”, under the jurisdiction of these concessionaires, are managed by other companies and are a legacy of the Portuguese administration that existed before gambling was liberalised in the country 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.
Melco, meanwhile, has announced the closure of the Grand Dragon casino and three Mocha clubs, although it intends to operate three others "by hiring a management company".
On the other hand, Pereira Coutinho said that the requirement for concessionaires to provide jobs for workers in the “satellite casinos” could aggravate unemployment among recent graduates.
"Many young graduates remain unemployed for years," he lamented.
According to official figures, the unemployment rate among university graduates was 3.3% in the second quarter of 2025, higher than the overall rate of 1.9% for Macau's entire population.
Pereira Coutinho even claimed that there are "graduates from foreign universities [who] give up on returning to the territory due to a lack of job opportunities".
The MP called on the government to implement "effective measures to reduce the number of non-resident workers in large companies, facilitating the employability of young and middle-aged people".
At the end of June, Macau had almost 182,600 migrant workers, 1,475 more than in the same month of 2024, according to official figures.
VQ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
