Macau gaming revenues fell 79.7% in March as the Chinese casino market continues to deal with the fallout from the country’s coronavirus pandemic.
The Gaming Inspection & Coordination Bureau said Wednesday Macau casinos collected $664 million from gamblers during the month that saw the Special Administrative Region increased efforts to slow viral spread.
The decline to $664 million followed February’s 87.8% drop to $386.5 million in gaming revenue. February included a 15-day shutdown of Macau’s casino market. The two months of declines to sub-billion-dollar figures come in a market that normally sees monthly gaming totals in the $3 billion range.
“With the government keeping limitations on individual and group visas into the market and transportation options remaining impaired we believe the Macau market could take five to seven months to start stabilizing and showing improvement,” Stifel Financial gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski told investors Wednesday.
Analysts said Macau casino operators, including Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands and MGM Resorts International, are spending between $1.5 million and $4 million a day to keep their properties running.
Including January’s 11.3% gaming revenue decline, Macau is down roughly 60% for the first three months of 2020. Macau gaming revenues fell 3.4% in 2019 to $36.5 billion, marking the region’s first gaming revenue decrease since 2016.
Macau undertook several travel restrictions to the market during March, beginning with a restriction on visitors from outside Greater China on March 20.
On March 24, authorities imposed 14-day quarantines from Macau visitors coming from Hong Kong and Taiwan. On March 26, the neighboring Guangdong province instituted 14-day quarantines on visitors entering the region from outside Mainland China, including Macau.
Macau has also banned entry by visitors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan who had traveled overseas. The move followed earlier bans on foreign visitors and non-resident workers.
“It’s still anybody’s guess as to what the next few months of gross gaming revenue will look like,” Wieczynski said. “While the casinos are now operational, we believe visitation and play levels will remain depressed for the foreseeable future.”
Macau’s government, which oversees the world’s largest gaming market, makes over 80% of its revenues from casinos.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
