Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) yesterday issued a statement announcing the redundancies of 270 of its casino staff, yet promised that they would be guaranteed employment should their position become vacant when the company’s mega resort opens in 2009.

The cut-backs affected both locals and expatriates at Grand Waldo and President Casinos.

Positions that were made redundant included pit managers and supervisors, dealers and their inspectors as well as security guards.

According to the release, “the decision was necessary for the two city clubs to cope with the changing market environment and to maximise operational efficiencies.”

When prompted to expand on this statement, GEG‘s public relations principal Philip Ho explained that “the two casinos [were] undergoing a business review and changes, consequently resulting in the number of gaming tables being reduced, in particular baccarat, from larger to smaller tables.”

Naturally, he added, the positions of dealer and dealer supervisor are directly affected.

With these positions invariably being taken up by local residents, “we see quite a number of local staff being affected by this exercise,” said Mr Ho.

He stressed though, that the the other three positions mentioned were predominantly ones taken up by expatriates.

“We regret the decision the two casinos have to make and that’s why we took necessary steps to make a guaranteed job offer to all affected staff,” he said.

This essentially means that those staff made redundant will have priority for any suitable position that becomes available within the group in 2009.