Macau casinos will remain closed for another five days

Authorities have decided that casinos will remain closed until July 22.

Macau.- The government of Macau has announced that all non-essential businesses, including casinos, will remain closed for an additional five days beyond the measure originally announced. Venues will now remain closed until Friday 22nd of July. 

Casinos have been closed since July 11 as a countermeasure against a new outbreak of Covid-19 cases. The latest outbrea began almost a month ago. Other entertainment venues have been shut since June 23. 

According to authorities, residents are not allowed to leave their houses unless for a necessary reason, such as to buy groceries. As of Friday, the number of cases reported since the beginning of the latest outbreak stood at 1,706. Since June 19, the city has conducted 10 rounds of Covid-19 community nucleic acid testing.

There are currently five casino resorts being used as quarantine accommodation in Macau. Studio City, run by Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd, and Broadway Macau, run by Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd, were added to the list on July 14.

Other hotels being used as quarantine accommodation include the Parisian Macao casino resort, the Sheraton Grand Macao and the Grand Hyatt Macau. The Casa Real casino hotel on the Macau peninsula has been added to the list of Red Code lockdown areas after three Covid-19 cases were detected there.

The Grand Lisboa Palace was on the list of Red Code lockdown areas after 13 new cases of Covid-19 were linked to the property. It has since been downgraded to “yellow,” meaning people were able to leave the building but continue to undergo regular Covid-19 tests until authorities are confident that no one has contracted a new infection.

Macau 2023 GGR could reach 60% of pre-pandemic levels

As previously reported by Focus Gaming News, analysts at Morningstar have predicted that Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) will reach only 20 per cent of 2019 levels this year. They expect 2023 GGR could rebound to 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. 

The US financial services firm had previously predicted that Macau’s GGR for this year could reach 40 per cent of 2019 levels.