Macau Jockey Club Chief Executive Thomas Li said the track is redecorating a venue that used to house a casino and will reopen it as soon as government approval arrives.
He did not specify the number of gaming positions that is being sought for the facility, which closed 10 years ago and moved to the Grandview Hotel in 2004, across the street from the Taipa track.
The new casino, like the old one, will operate as a revenue-sharing sub-licensee of casino concessionaire SJM. SJM’s founder, casino tycoon Stanley Ho, founded the consortium that owns the Jockey Club, a thoroughbred track that conducts the only live horseracing in Macau.
The track is projecting a loss of MOP50 million (US$6.3 million) for 2013, which will be its ninth consecutive money-losing year.
Revenues were impacted in the latest accounting by the closing of four neighborhood OTBs, although management said traffic disruption from ongoing construction of a Light Rail Transit line in front of the facility has been more damaging.
Li said that with only three off-course betting venues remaining, the track also “will strengthen efforts to develop online betting,” which has become an important business. Online revenue was up by almost 50 percent last year to MOP154.9 million ($19 million). On-track betting generated MOP1.88 billion ($235 million), up 2.9 percent over 2012.
The MJC last posted a profit in 2004 and has accumulated losses of about MOP3.78 billion since. The club has been technically bankrupt since 2006 as its losses are greater than its share capital.
Its exclusive concession on horseracing in the Chinese territory, which dates back to 1978, ends in August 2015.
