The phased expansion of Galaxy Macau in the city’s Cotai district is continuing, with Phase 3 complete and Phase 4 on track for completion in 2024. According to Francis Lui, deputy chairman of the property’s promoter, Macau casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., their launch will depend on “prevailing market conditions.”
Earnings have been affected by occasional restrictions on travel from Mainland China to Macau due to Covid-19 outbreaks and a sharp decline in VIP gambling business, according to GGRAsia. Gaming operators in Macau have largely severed their associations with third-party junkets as Mainland China cracks down on cross-border money transfers.
Galaxy Phase 3 and 4, with its “strong focus on non-gaming,” will provide approximately “3,000 high-end and family rooms and villas”; a 16,000-seat multipurpose arena; meeting space; new F&B outlets and retail as well as casino facilities, according to the firm’s latest results filing.
Macau’s six gaming concessionaires are all vying for new licenses. The original 20-year terms were originally due to expire on June 26, but the government offered extensions until December 31. The new licenses will be viable for 10 years.
“We anticipate that, by June 26… the Legislative Assembly will vote [on] and approve” an amendment to the city’s gaming law, Lui recently told reporters. The local government said that is a necessary step before there can be a new concessionary regime.
“We are very confident that the government will, after July, start the public tender work within a short period of time. We also believe that the government… will complete the [public tender] work by year-end, so that our operation can seamlessly continue into next year.”
The gaming law amendment affirms Macau will have no more than six concessions, and no sub-concessions; and a gaming concession period of up to 10 years—with some leeway for short extensions—rather than the maximum 20-year concession lifespan, with the possibility of short extensions permissible under the current gaming regulatory framework.
A report issued in March by banking group JP Morgan, said it expected a new public tender process to start in the third quarter this year, with permits to be awarded in the fourth quarter, ready for a new 10-year license period coinciding with the beginning of 2023.
