The coronavirus outbreak in Macau in mid-June slowed things down but as things stand now, the business is once again blooming with no new infections being reported. Due to the effect of the complete shutdown, the Macau casinos experienced one of their worst times as their Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) was just $49 million in the last month. As the casinos remained closed for 11 days due to government orders, the business recorded its lowest monthly income in almost 20 years.
After no new cases were reported in the last several days, Macau is once again welcoming foreign guests as they are now easing border procedures. With that, the business has increased resulting in double income as casinos have grabbed about $10 million a day in the second week of August. The organization was earning about $4.5 million a day in the first week of August but things rapidly changed in the following week.
China is yet to reach to its full potential
The business however can make a lot of money when things completely return to normal. The United States of America has accepted the ‘new normal environment’ but China is strict with its ‘zero covid’ policy. Hence, the business is yet to reach its full potential.
Before the pandemic, that is in the year 2019, the GGR of Macau was MOP 173.9 billion (US$21.5 billion). In the last seven months of July, the business had a GGR total of just MOP 26.7 billion (US$3.3 billion). A huge difference in value can be noticed as the business is hit by China’s travel restrictions.
“The pace of GGR recovery is still uncertain due to the remaining travel restrictions across feeder Chinese provinces, risks of COVID infection resurgence, and stringent 24-hour COVID test validity to cross the border with China,” said Bernstein analysts Vitaly Umansky, Louis Li, and Shirley Yang according to casino.org.
The analysts also pointed out that the Casino won $99 million in the first half of August and it’s already the double amount of money that they have won in the month of July. However, it is just 7% of what they used to earn a month before the pandemic.