The Casa Real is set to officially cease operations at 23:59 [15:59 Lisbon time] on Friday, November 21, announced SJM, ensuring that all local employees directly hired by the company have guaranteed employment.
In a statement, the operator explained that employees with resident status in Macau will be “transferred to other company casinos to perform gaming-related functions, according to operational needs.”
Local staff not directly hired by SJM Resorts are “invited to apply for related vacancies” within the group, “with hiring priority” and with conditions identical to those they had before.
Shortly after SJM’s announcement, Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) assured it would “strictly oversee the closure procedures on-site” for Casa Real.
Regarding the 285 casino employees, the DICJ guaranteed, in a press release, that it will maintain communication with the Labour Affairs Bureau to ensure compliance with the guarantees provided by SJM, notably “the relocation of all the aforementioned workers.”
SJM emphasized that “all gaming tables and machines currently in operation at the location will be transferred to other company casinos.”
Macau, the world’s gambling capital, is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal.
The DICJ allocates to each of the six concessionaires – MGM, Galaxy, Venetian, Melco, Wynn, and SJM – a maximum quota of gaming tables and machines they can install in the casinos they operate.
On June 9, the Macau government announced that the gaming concessionaires had communicated the end of the operation of the 11 ‘satellite casinos,’ where about 5,600 residents worked.
However, only nine ‘satellite casinos’ are expected to close, as SJM aims to acquire the hotels where two are located – Ponte 16 and Casino Royal Arc – and request the authorities to assume direct management of the spaces.
The ‘satellite casinos,’ under the concessionaires’ purview, are operated by other companies, a legacy of the Portuguese administration that existed before the liberalization of gaming in the territory in 2002.
When the legislation regulating casinos was amended in 2022, it established the end of 2025 as the deadline for ending the activity of these gaming spaces.
The first casino to close was Grandview at the end of July, which was under SJM’s purview. Emperor Palace closed its doors at the end of October, while Legend Palace closed on Wednesday.
