David Chow gives up on hotel-casino project in Djéu

In an interview with Hong Kong television TVB, broadcast on Wednesday night, Li Chu Kwan said that Macau Legend intends to cease operations in both Cape Verde and Cambodia by 2025.

The executive justified the abandonment of the Djéu hotel-casino with the desire of the company, founded by businessman David Chow, to reduce investment in gambling and invest in projects linked to entertainment and yacht tourism. In June, Macau Legend announced plans to sell the Savan Legend integrated gaming development in Savannakhet, Laos, near the Thai border, for US$45 million (€42.8 million).

In 2015, David Chow signed an agreement with the Cape Verdean Government for the construction of the project on the islet of Santa Maria, with the first stone of the project being laid in February 2016. The project involved the largest tourist development in Cape Verde, with a planned global investment of 250 million euros – around 15% of Cape Verde's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The plan involved the construction of a tourist resort with an area of 152,700 square meters, a 250-room boutique casino hotel, which has already been built but is closed, a swimming pool, several restaurant and bar facilities, as well as a marina. But the project suffered successive postponements.

In March 2020, Macau Legend announced that it planned to open the hotel-casino in the city of Praia at the end of 2021, after having planned to complete the work in 2019 by the end of the following year. In December, the president of Cabo Verde TradeInvest, José Almada Dias, told Lusa that Macau Legend had promised to soon present a plan to resume work, which had been stopped for several years.

Remember that in February this year, the Prime Minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, said that the Government was waiting for a definitive response from investor David Chow in relation to the continuity of the construction of the large tourist center on Gamboa beach and Santa Maria islet.

Ulisses Correia e Silva recalled that there is a commitment so the situation cannot continue as it is at the moment.

“The works have to be done. There is a commitment, a contract, an establishment convention, there is a concession and we cannot continue with the situation as it is at the moment. The businessman, the investor, has already been contacted and we hope there is a response so that we can get out of this impasse”, he declared.

Interestingly, in 2018, the Government had awarded the Portuguese-Chinese businessman David Chow, promoter of the Gamboa/Santa Maria island project, the tourist merit medal for its contribution to the economic development of the country. The distinction given to the businessman, owner of the Macau Legend group, was published in the Official Bulletin. That same year, Legend Globe, from Chow's group of companies, submitted a request for the creation of Banco Sino-Atlântico in 2018, but the project was rejected by the Bank of Cape Verde for not having provided all legally required information and documents.

Macau Legend received a 25-year license from the Government, 15 of which on an exclusive basis on the island of Santiago. This gaming concession cost CV Entertainment Co., a subsidiary of Macau Legend, the equivalent of around 1.2 million euros. Macau Legend also received a special license to exclusively explore online gambling throughout the country and the sports betting market for ten years. The gaming law defines five permanent gaming zones, on the islands of Santiago, São Vicente, Sal, Boa Vista and Maio.

Cape Verde has so far awarded two concessions, one to Macau Legend and another to the island of Sal. Currently, the country has only one casino in operation, the Casino Royal, in Santa Maria, Sal, which opened its doors in December 2016 , after an investment of almost five million euros.

With Lusa