City to shut casinos for a week amidst Covid-19 outbreak
Macau will close all its casinos for a week starting today – the second closure the government has ordered since the first outbreak in February 2020, which led to a 15-day shutdown.
The seven-day suspension is to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Macau has largely restricted people to their homes as it tries to stop the Covid-19 outbreak that has infected more than 1,400 people in the past three weeks.
All businesses have been ordered to shut except for supermarkets and others providing essential services. Residents must stay home unless they need to go out, such as for food, shopping or to work in a sector deemed essential.
Data from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau showed that Macau’s gaming revenue last month has fallen 62.1% compared to June 2021, and a decline 25.9% compared to May 2022.
For the first six months of 2022, Macau’s gaming revenue is USD3.26 billion, down 46.4% from the first six months of 2021.
As cited in a report issued by The Nevada Independent, Macquarie Securities gaming analyst Chad Beynon said that the pandemic will continue to be a factor in Macau’s gaming revenue declines until November.
November is predicted to be when a Chinese government event is planned and some of the health and safety restrictions might be lifted.
“We remain cautious in the near term, as the Macau recovery has seen several fits and starts and remains highly sensitive to Covid outbreaks,” Beynon said.
The SAR has been imposing a zero-Covid strategy by locking down buildings where positive cases have been detected and by conducting repeat rounds of mass testing to find and isolate infected individuals.
Macau’s gaming revenues are expected to reach “near-zero” levels, gaming analysts have suggested. They have also predicted that all gaming operators will record a negative EBITDA in the second quarter of this year, with no operator escaping the economic fallout of the pandemic.
Macau’s all-time gaming revenue record was USD45 billion in 2013.
The gaming revenues recorded in 2020 and 2021 are the lowest single-year back-to-back totals since 2006 and 2007.
