Five out of six Macau casino operators have opened foreigner-only gaming rooms

Macau offered an incentive for casino operators to open foreigner-only spaces to reduce dependence on high-rollers from mainland China.

Macau.- Five Macau casinos have responded to the push to reduce dependence on mainland Chinese high-rollers by setting up foreigner-only gaming rooms, according to the news agency, Lusa. 

The Venetian Macau, the Grand Lisboa Palace, the City of Dreams, Studio City, and the MGM Macau, along with its sister property in Cotai, have added exclusive areas for foreign players. That leaves Wynn as the only operator who does not appear to offer such facilities as yet.

Macau casino operators were encouraged to build gaming zones exclusive to foreign gamblers with an exemption on a 5 per cent levy on gross gaming revenue from the areas. The incentive was offered in a bid to reduce the city’s dependence on the mainland Chinese market amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, despite efforts to attract overseas tourists, numbers remain small. The latest Macau Government Tourism Office figures show of the almost five million visitors in the first quarter of this year, around 3.2 million were from China, while most of the rest were from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Visitors from elsewhere made up only two per cent of arrivals in January.

See also: Macau gaming firms using private jets to bring in overseas customers