SJM to allocate 118 gaming tables to Grand Lisboa Palace
Daisy Ho Chiu Fung, SJM Holdings chairman, has said the company plans to reallocate 118 gaming tables to its Grand Lisboa Palace resort, which opens today.
Macau.- After months of delays, the grand opening of Grand Lisboa Palace Phase I takes place today (July 30), and SJM plans to allocate the venue 118 gaming tables from other properties.
In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, SJM Holdings confirmed the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) has authorised the company’s request for the transfer of additional gaming tables to Grand Lisboa Palace from other casinos.
The regulator has also allowed SJM to add 1,200 new slot machines at the Grand Lisboa Palace, with specific limits on the numbers that can be in operation on opening.
The HK$39bn (US$5bn) Grand Lisboa Palace will initially open one of its towers with 300 rooms. The opening of the second phase will depend on the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic and related travel restrictions.
Daisy Ho Chiu Fung said the venue has received approval for 150 gaming tables to be available on opening.
Ho said: “We will slowly increase the number of rooms according to actual demand, that’s the plan. We hope that by the end of this year we should be able to open up entirely.”
When complete, Grand Lisboa Palace will have around 2,000 hotel rooms split between three venues: The Lisboa Palace Hotel, Palazzo Versace Macau, and Karl Lagerfeld Hotel luxury boutique hotel.
It will have 27,000 square metres of gaming floor space (290,000 sq ft) for up to 700 gaming tables and 1,200 electronic gaming machines. The venue will host an art exhibition from September 1 to October 31.
SJM CEO believes Macau should consider extending gaming licences
In May, Ambrose So Shu Fai, CEO of SJM, said Macau should extend its six current gaming concessions for an extra year.
According to Shu Fai, the move would give Macau’s gaming operators time to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and the city time to better decide what changes to make to licence criteria. He noted that Macau’s current travel restrictions would make it impossible for foreign passport holders to visit the city for the retendering process.
Macau’s current casino licences will expire in June 2022 but could be extended for up to five years under the city’s gaming laws.
