Macau Jockey Club gave investment plan: gaming regulator

Aug 16, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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Macau’s gaming regulator said on Wednesday it had received a detailed investment plan issued on behalf of the Macau Horse Race Co Ltd, which runs Macau Jockey Club. Paulo Martins Chan, head of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, told reporters that the renewed concession contract with Macau Horse Race Co included a timetable for the firm to complete its investment.

Hours earlier a Macau legislator claimed on the sidelines of a Legislative Assembly committee meeting that no such document had yet been submitted to the city’s legislators. The gaming bureau’s Mr Chan later said the firm’s plan would be submitted to the appropriate Legislative Assembly committee once his bureau had completed a detailed assessment of the document.

Macau Jockey Club had pledged an investment plan as one of the conditions for being granted in February a circa 24-year extension of its horse racing betting monopoly. A specific condition of the continued rights was that the firm should invest MOP1.5 billion (US$186 million) in improving the facilities at the club venue and increasing non-gaming facilities.

The concession extension was granted despite the fact that in March it emerged the club owed the government at least MOP153 million in backdated dues, and that the government had known about the fact since 2015.

Angela Leong On Kei – an executive director of Macau casino operator SJM Holdings Ltd and a Macau legislator – was listed as a vice president of the board of Macau Horse Race Co in the most recent publicly-available information about the latter firm.

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