Macau’s six licensed casino operators will be required to pay a “special premium” of between MOP$50 million and MOP$80 million (US$6.2 million and US$9.9 million) to extend their concessions for another six months, according to a report by TDM Radio.
As previously revealed by Inside Asian Gaming, the Macau SAR Government is planning to extend the licenses of the concessionaires from their current expiry date of 26 June 2022 until 31 December 2022, allowing additional time to pass a revised gaming law and conduct a re-tendering for casino concessions.
IAG had previously estimated a fair value for the “special premium” could arguably be amounts ranging from MOP$14 million to MOP$45 million, based on various calculation methodologies.
TDM Radio said Wednesday that each operator will also be required to provide a bank guarantee of up to MOP$1.6 billion (US$200 million) to cover potential layoffs should they not be granted a new concession under the re-tender process.
The “special premium” compares to the MOP$200 million (US$25 million) paid by both SJM and MGM China in 2019 to extend their concessions, originally due to expire in 2020, for an additional two years until 2022, allowing them to align with the concessions of the other four operators – Galaxy Entertainment Group, Melco Resorts, Sands China and Wynn Macau.
MGM also paid SJM a sum of MOP$20 million (US$2.5 million) in 2019 in connection with the extension of its sub-concession from March 2020 to June 2022. The sub-concession system will be scrapped under amendments to Macau’s gaming law currently being debated by the Legislative Assembly.
