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MACAU BUSINESS By Tony Lai By Paolo A. Azevedo End of an era
Jeju – the new Singapore
More than three years after Macau’s revised gaming law set the process in motion, all satellite casinos - once instrumental in expanding the city’s gaming sector - have now been phased out. The closures are expected to have minimal impact on overall gaming revenue; however, districts like ZAPE are already feeling the pinch of the end of an era. For gamblers, this was a foregone conclusion, but the farewell was not without a level of emotion.
M
r. Chan, a Macau resident with over two decades of gambling experience, spent a reflective month retracing his footsteps through the city’s now-shuttered satellite casinos. Among his stops were long- standing venues at Ponte 16 Resort and Hotel Fortuna on the Macau peninsula. His final visit took him to Casino Landmark, located within the New Orient Landmark Hotel, on the night of 30 December.
Jeju will be as big as Singapore in terms of Gross Gaming Revenue, predicts Lawrence Teo. The Chief Operations Officer and Vice President of Dream Tower, the tallest Integrated Resort under construction on the Korean destination island, explains to Macau Business why Lotte Tour decided to enter the casino business and create a landmark. All bets are on making the casino resort the crown of the tourism jewel the company has been dominating for four decades
“The Cotai casinos are grander, for sure, but these old places hold memories. They’re just different,” he said, standing among a crowd of onlookers as the venue closed its doors moments before midnight on 31 December. “It’s inevitable. The rules are tighter now… There’s nothing we can do.”
26 FEBRUARY 2026 M
natural evolution? Lawrence Teo – Business is the same. But building
a landmark. M. B. – The group [Lotte] has created other landmarks in different types of business. Why would this be different?
What he witnessed - alongside hundreds of residents and tourists - was more than just the closure of the last satellite casino in the city. It marked the symbolic end of Macau’s satellite casino era, a business model that had once defined the city’s gaming landscape. Following his year-end visit to Beijing to report to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Macau Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai confirmed that the closure of satellite casinos was among the key developments communicated by the city during the trip. “[The Macau government] has ensured the lawful, healthy, and orderly development of the gaming industry,” he said. “All satellite casinos are… closed in accordance with the law… with efforts to maintain a healthy structure and appropriate scale for the industry,” the city’s leader said. “Gaming concessionaires will be urged to further expand their overseas customer base and commit to non-gaming investments.” The government’s decision to phase out the decades-old satellite system - where third-party entities ran casinos under the licence of a gaming
acau Business – From Lotte World, a major recreational complex [with the world’s largest indoor theme park, in Seoul] to an integrated resort with casino in Jeju. A different beast. A
to do the Dream Tower in Jeju. Lotte here is being just a family company; we’re a different company [Lotte Tour]. It’s not going to be [just] the tallest and the largest building in Jeju, that’s just the hardware. We say that a landmark should be the most visited destination, where tourists will go to eat, shop and maybe [visit] our observation deck. A must-visit point destination. Because of the hardware, and also the software.
concessionaire, but outside concessionaire- owned properties - came as part of sweeping reforms to the gaming law enacted in 2022. Under the revised regulatory framework, all casinos must now operate within properties owned by licensed gaming concessionaires. Satellite casino companies are required to either convert into management companies - no longer permitted to share in gaming revenue but instead receiving a fixed “management fee” - or exit the market entirely. This marks a decisive departure from the long-standing model dating back to the 1980s and 1990s, under which satellite operators retained about 55 per cent of gaming revenue, while the remaining 45 per cent was allocated to the concessionaires. Though a three-year grace period was granted through to the end of 2025 to allow for transition, this model has been effectively dismantled. By early 2025, only 11 satellite casinos remained. All have now ceased operations, the last being Casino Landmark, except for Casino L’Arc, which has transitioned into a self-managed venue under gaming concessionaire SJM Holdings.
M. B. – What are the main goals that you definitely
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