Macau to shut down casinos

Chinese authorities have decided to shut down all casinos in Macau for at least two weeks due to coronavirus.

Macau.- Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng has announced that the government has asked all casino operators to shut down their casinos for at least two weeks. This move is part of an attempt to stop coronavirus from spreading in the region.

Ho met casino owners late on Tuesday to talk about the closures, though no details were mentioned as to when they would need to suspend their services. “This is a difficult decision but we have to do it, for the health of our Macau residents,” Ho told reporters.

This closure makes sense as travel services are extremely limited in the region, and residents are advised to stay at their homes as much as possible.

This is just the second time that Macau casinos are being forced to close their doors. The first time happened in 2018, when a typhoon hit the Chinese territory and forced casinos to shut down for 33 hours.

Revenue declines 11.3% in January

In January, facilities in Macau registered an 11.3% setback in revenues to US$2.76 billion. The figure that was registered last month was actually worse than what analysts had expected during the first week of January, just when the virus was starting to spread. However, they were also lower than other estimations that had been made before the implementation of visitor restrictions during the last week of January.

Japanese brokerage Nomura recently said that it expected daily GGR in January and February to improve when compared to the same period in 2019. January’s results, while underwhelming, are expected to be higher than this one’s.