SJM Holdings will file a request with Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau to transfer 118 gaming tables from its existing properties to Grand Lisboa Palace (GLP), the HK$39 billion Cotai integrated resort that opened on Friday.
Details of the company’s table games expansion plan were outlined by Chairman Daisy Ho during Friday’s opening after SJM confirmed the previous day that it would open with 150 new-to-market tables – all of them on the mass gaming floor.
SJM also has permission to install 1,200 new slot machines at GLP albeit “with specific limits on the numbers that can be installed and be in operation at the time of opening,” according to a filing.
The additional 118 tables set to make their way to Cotai this month from SJM’s four other self-promoted casinos and 14 satellite casinos will include some designated for GLP’s VIP rooms, although Ho said Friday that the exact split is yet to be determined.
“We will be reallocating 118 of our own tables from other properties to also move to Grand Lisboa Palace,” she said. “And that will be a ramp up, so we will be applying to the government very soon.
“As to the actual allocation of mass and VIP we are working on it. At the moment, when we open, these 150 are all mass tables, but [the application for additional tables] will be shortly, I think within a month or so.”
GLP’s phase 1 opening on Friday saw only a handful of attractions ready to accept guests, including around 300 hotel rooms of the 1,350-room Grand Lisboa Palace Macau hotel, a wellness center with a 25-meter indoor pool, an indoor and outdoor event space covering 3,800 square meters, and a handful of F&B outlets.
Ho said she expects the remaining amenities to be open before the end of 2021.
“We are extremely happy about our opening and our expectation is, it’s a new property, we are putting in some more time and effort into creating Grand Lisboa Palace,” she said.
“Of course, the pandemic is still ongoing. Our expectation is we will attract new customers, we are a new property. Our plan is for the entire Grand Lisboa Palace, this property, to be open by the end of the year. So this is just a base opening and we are looking at a very healthy ramping up.”
