Macau, China, Dec. 16, 2025 (Lusa) - The concessionaire SJM Resorts announced that shareholders have approved the acquisition of Royal Arc, the only one of Macau's 11 “satellite casinos” that is expected to continue operating after the end of the year.
In a statement sent to the Hong Kong stock exchange, SJM said that 99.9% of the votes cast at the extraordinary general meeting held on Monday were in favour of the deal, which still has to be approved by the Macau government.
On 20 November, the company announced an agreement to acquire the owner of the hotel where Royal Arc is located for HK$1.75 billion (€195.2 million).
The “satellite casinos”, under the jurisdiction of the concessionaires, are managed by other companies, a legacy of the Portuguese administration that existed before the liberalisation of gambling 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 venues to cease operations.
On 9 June, the Macau government announced that the gaming concessionaires had informed them of the end of operations for the 11 “satellite casinos”, where around 5,600 residents worked.
However, SJM, founded by gaming magnate Stanley Ho Hung Sun (1921-2020), revealed at the time plans to acquire the hotels where two of them are located, Ponte 16 and Royal Arc, and ask the authorities to take over direct management of the venues.
On 20 November, the concessionaire announced that, "after a comprehensive commercial review", it had decided not to proceed with the purchase of Ponte 16.
Lusa asked the casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), today if it had received a request from SJM to take over direct management of the Ponte 16 casino, but received no response.
Nine of Macau's 11 “satellite casinos” have already closed. The last to close its doors, on 9 December, was Fortuna, which employed more than 550 people. The tenth, Landmark, which has 1,169 employees, will close on 30 December.
SJM stressed that all employees of “satellite casinos” with Macau resident status and who are directly employed by the company are guaranteed employment in other casinos.
Other local workers "are invited to apply for related positions" within the group, "with priority for hiring" and with the same conditions they had before.
The DICJ promised to cooperate with the Labour Affairs Bureau to ensure that the guarantees given by the concessionaires have been met, namely "the relocation of all the aforementioned workers".
At the end of August, Portuguese Macau MP José Pereira Coutinho said he feared "a new wave of unemployment" in the region "in the medium to long term".
However, according to official data, the unemployment rate in Macau fell to 1.7% between August and October, the lowest since January.
VQ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
