Casinos rent public buses to pick up customers at Border Gate

Several gaming operators have rented public buses to accommodate for the surge of Chinese New Year (CNY) tourists waiting for the casino shuttles at the border gate.

According to a report by Macao Daily News, public buses were spotted at the Border Gate working as casino shuttles to pick up passengers last Sunday, the third day of CNY.

The Transport Bureau (DSAT) revealed that due to the large number of tourists during the CNY holiday, gaming operators rented vehicles from the three Macau bus companies to ease the demanding crowds at the border gate. Three bus companies already reported the situation to DSAT.

According to DSAT, this is not the first year that gaming operators have resorted to such a measure, as last year they did the same. All payments were made by the gaming operators themselves, noted DSAT, without using public money.

DSAT will make an announcement regarding the number of public buses hired and the number of passengers picked up once the statistics have been collected.

During the CNY holiday, more tourists were seen queuing up at the border gate trying to get on a casino shuttle bus than a normal shuttle bus.

Casino employees working on the border gate shuttles, said that it sometimes would take two hours for tourists to get on a bus due to the large number of tourists.

The casino shuttles were also operating at a higher frequency on Sunday to speed up the process.