How badly did the recent closure of Macau casinos impact the bottom lines of the impacted casinos in Asia’s most boombastic gambling hub? According to recent reports, the collective casinos of Macau suffered the worst downturn in enclave’s history with gaming revenue falling an astounding 88 percent.
While that number is quite shocking to look at and, no doubt, to experience, it’s not particularly surprising. After all, Macau’s casinos were shut down completely for 15 days at the height of the first wave of coronavirus outbreaks in China. Not only were they closed, they were closed during the two-week Lunar New Year holiday that sees massive amounts of travel by Chinese nationals.
As of this writing, all but two of Macau’s casinos are back up and running (only the Casino Taipa at the Regency Art Hotel and the Casino Macau Jockey Club in the Macau Roosevelt Hotel remain shuttered). But while the casinos are open, it’s definitely not business as usual. Re-opened casinos had to agree to a number of virus mitigation step including allowing one seat between each player at gambling tables.
Investors are keen on the idea that Macau will bounce back. In a statement reported on by Yahoo! Money, an unidentified JP Morgan Chase analyst said, “We do not think COVID-19 will curb gamblers’ enthusiasm… so its impact on the industry’s sustainable earnings power should be limited.”
For the record, the closures may have actually worked as Macau reported only ten cases of coronavirus, with no fatalities, and hasn’t had a new case in almost 30 days. Regardless, Macau’s business mostly comes from China and China is still, to a certain degree, very locked down.