A casino has returned to the Macau Jockey Club but as an entirely electronic operation under the management of Paradise Entertainment.
Hong Kong-listed Paradise, whose LT Game subsidiary holds a monopoly on live dealer multi-game play terminals in the city, is running the 13,600-square-foot casino as a sub-licensee of casino concessionaire SJM, and the floor is an all-LT affair targeting mass-market gamblers and populated with 180 of the terminals and three traditional-looking baccarat tables that feature live dealers and playing cards but all the betting is electronic.
Paradise says the “chipless” operation is more secure and cost-effective, requiring only 10 workers to staff, two-thirds fewer workers than the usual model.
“That’s the trend for the future, gambling without chips,” said Paradise Chairman Jay Chun.
“And the gaming can go fast as there is no transaction between the dealers and the players in each game,” he added.
Paradise also runs SJM satellite Kam Pek Paradise Casino and Waldo Casino, one of three City Clubs-branded casinos operating as sub-licensees of concession-holder Galaxy Entertainment Group.
According to a press statement from Paradise, LT (Macau) is entitled to between 40 percent and 55 percent of the net win of the casino’s multi-game machines, e-tables and slot machines.
SJM closed the Jockey Club’s original casino in 2004. The racetrack was founded by Stanley Ho and is owned by a consortium led by STDM, the company that held Ho’s casino monopoly in the city prior to liberalization in 2002. STDM remains a major shareholder in SJM.
