dramatic decline in visitation to Macau<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, including an all-time low of just 230 visitor arrivals last Sunday. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe decline comes after Guangdong Province announced mandatory quarantine for anyone returning from Macau or Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response, the Macau government will ask mainland China to resume issuing visas under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic is under control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[Keeping casinos open] is because the gaming industry is not only providing (gambling) services, but also guarantees the employment of over 58,000 employees,\u201d Lei said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMacau and the mainland is working hard on preventative measures. Once the situation of the epidemic is eased, the SAR government will ask the central government to resume the IVS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding workers, Lei noted that he had received several reports about operators reducing employee wages or asking staff to volunteer for unpaid leave, and emphasised such agreements must be confirmed on both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe six gaming concessionaires have still made their commitment to sustain employment during this difficult time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere have been some individual dismissal cases due to employees not following their principals. A junket operator previously laid off employees and we cooperated with them to solve the problem. We have to tide over this time together but I believe our persistence will be worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government plans to set up a MOP$10 billion (\u20ac1.14billion) fund from the Macao Foundation to support residents and businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the Secretary stated that gaming operators would not be the target of the fund.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lei Wai Nong, says authorities intend to keep casinos open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau's Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lei Wai Nong, has affirmed the government's commitment to maintaining casino operations despite a severe decline in visitation driven by new quarantine measures from Guangdong Province. This strategic decision prioritizes the employment of over 58,000 individuals within the gaming sector. Concurrently, the government will advocate for the resumption of mainland China's Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) visas post-pandemic and establish a MOP$10 billion fund for residents and businesses, explicitly excluding gaming concessionaires from direct financial aid.","focusai_entities":"Lei Wai Nong, Macao Foundation, Guangdong Province, Macau government, mainland China, SAR government, central government","focusai_location":"Macau, Hong Kong, Guangdong Province, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IVS Visa Reinstatement","query":"What specific epidemiological criteria or public health milestones will the Macau SAR government present to the central government to expedite the reinstatement of the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) visas?"},{"label":"Concessionaire Employment Oversight","query":"Beyond verbal commitments, what concrete governance frameworks will the Macau government implement to monitor and enforce the six gaming concessionaires' pledges to sustain employment, particularly concerning reported wage adjustments and unpaid leave?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,28,161,16338,167,158],"tags":[29,257,337],"class_list":["post-5250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-casino-news","category-daily-news","category-east-asia-news","category-news-region","category-slider-home","tag-casino","tag-macau","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5250"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5262,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions\/5262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}