Macau records discouraging March casino revenues tally

Last month reportedly saw the 39 casinos in Macau record an almost 80% drop year-on-year in aggregated gross gaming revenues to slightly over $658.31 million due in large part to the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a report from GGRAsia citing official information from the enclave’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, the figure for the 31-day period nevertheless represented an improvement of 69.4% when compared with February although it was still some 76.2% lower than January’s finishing tally of about $2.77 billion.

Quarterly crash:

The final reckoning for March reportedly means that the many casinos in Macau have now recorded aggregated first-quarter gross gaming revenues of $3.81 billion, which equates to a nearly 60% slide when compared with the same three-month period in 2019 of approximately $9.53 billion.

Temporary impediment:

GGRAsia reported that February saw every one on Macau’s casinos closed for a 15-day period as authorities struggled to stop the spread of a potentially-deadly coronavirus strain that had infected 41 locals. Although these venues were permitted to re-open from February 20, they are still purportedly struggling to attract players largely due to a range of travel restrictions put in place by the government of neighboring China.

Unfamiliar famine:

Official data from the city’s Public Security Police Force reportedly showed that Sunday and Monday had seen semi-autonomous Macau welcome only about 500 foreign tourists. This figure purportedly stands in stark contract to the over 108,000 non-native visitors that are thought to have traveled into the former Portuguese enclave on a daily basis in 2019 when the year-end tally had surpassed 39.4 million.

Detrimental delays:

It was additionally reported that authorities in neighboring Guangdong Province, which has long served as an important feeder marker for the many casinos in Macau, last week ramped up its coronavirus-related protections by implementing a 14-day quarantine requirement for anyone entering its territory from outside of mainland China. This measure had been purportedly preceded by more stringent entry limits along with an analogous isolation period for those travelling the other way or visiting Macau from Hong Kong or Taiwan.