SJM Resorts will close its satellite venue Casino Casa Real on the Macau peninsula on 21 November 2025, with gaming operations ending at 11:59 p.m., as the city’s year-end deadline for restructuring or shutting satellite casinos draws closer. The move follows the recent closures of fellow SJM-linked satellites Legend Palace, Grandview and Emperor Palace, and underscores how quickly Macau’s legacy satellite model is being wound down under the amended 2022 Gaming Law.
Macau’s Casino Legend Palace to close November 12 as city’s satellite casino era nears its end
Under the revised framework, all satellite casinos must either be operated directly by one of Macau’s six concessionaires or cease operations by 31 December 2025. Profit-sharing arrangements with third-party hotel owners, which defined the satellite era, are no longer permitted. Once Casa Real goes dark, only five satellites will remain active under SJM’s licence, with Ponte 16 and L’Arc Macau already earmarked to transition into fully SJM-operated properties next year.
SJM has stated that all gaming tables and slot machines from Casa Real will be redeployed to its core casinos elsewhere in Macau, and that customers with unredeemed chips, deposits or cash rebates will be able to cash out at other SJM venues from 22 November. The company says the 296 staff directly employed by SJM at Casa Real will be reassigned within the group, while local employees engaged via service providers will receive priority for vacancies, in coordination with the Labour Affairs Bureau.
For Macau’s government, the closure is framed as part of a push towards a “healthy and sustainable” gaming industry with clearer accountability and fewer intermediaries. For SJM, historically the operator most exposed to the satellite model, Casa Real’s shutdown is another milestone in a broader consolidation strategy that shifts capacity and labour towards its flagship properties while the satellite chapter of Macau gaming moves rapidly towards its end.
