Macau closes casinos over typhoon threat

Typhoon Mangkhut has forced casino operators to shut down their business temporarily for the first time since the licences were issued in 2002.

Macau.- The Chinese territory of Macau hosts the largest gambling hub in the world, made possible after casino licences were first issued in 2002. However, the industry has been forced to close its operations as of last Saturday due to safety risks caused by the typhoon Mangkhut, which struck the coasts of China this weekend.

Not only were casinos forced to close, but regular traffic isn’t expected to return to normal until a day or two after they go back in business, which could be as soon as this Monday. Furthermore, according to Union Gaming Securities Asia Ltd analyst Grant Govertsen, the business break impacted on the annual growth rate of September’s GGR and took – at least – 500 basis points off it.

“Given that the blanket casino closure happened on an all-important weekend day, which typically generates significantly higher GGR than a weekday, we expect that somewhere between €117 billion and €160 billion in GGR will be lost,” Mr Govertsen wrote.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc also took 11 percentage points off its September GGR growth estimate. In a note released on Sunday, analysts Carlo Santarelli and Danny Valoy wrote: “Given the loss of Saturday night/Sunday and what are likely to be disruptions over the course of the next several days, depending on damage and ease of travel in the coming days… Accordingly, our September GGR forecast has been reduced to 3% from 14%.”