Macaus financial performance exhibited indications of improvement in October, although it remained significantly diminished by 85% in comparison to 2019.
Macau exhibited early signs of recovery in October, with gaming revenue reaching 3.9 billion Macau patacas ($481 million/£417 million/€484 million), only 10.7% lower than the total for 2021.
Macaus financial performance exhibited indications of improvement in October, although it remained significantly diminished by 85% in comparison to 2019.
This compares to the 2.96 billion Macau patacas reported in September, which was 49.6% lower than the total for 2021. This represents a 31.8% month-on-month increase in revenue. However, even this modest recovery is still 85.3% lower than the pre-pandemic revenue of 26.4 billion Macau patacas in October 2019.
The continued monthly improvement in revenue may reflect the easing of COVID-19 measures in the month. The former Portuguese colony had not recorded any cases for over three months until Sunday, when an outbreak occurred at the MGM Grand Macau hotel and casino.
New regulations
Since then, the Sands has been locked down, and neither guests nor employees are allowed to leave until the isolation period is over. In addition, all 700,000 inhabitants of Macau are expected to undergo rapid flow tests daily.
Starting today, the city has also relaxed its visa rules, allowing mainland Chinese citizens to apply through an online system – rather than having to apply in person as they have had to do since the outbreak.
Fresh regulations will permit collective travel authorizations, clearing the path for the return of tourist groups.
The head administrator, Ho Iat Seng, projected in the policy declaration that daily visitor counts could subsequently climb to forty thousand.
Nevertheless, the new visa strategy features an inherent “circuit breaker” mechanism that will suspend the new regulations if a fresh COVID-19 outbreak emerges – implying the policy could be halted if the current outbreak expands.
**Unpredictability**
The ongoing situation has prompted Robert Goldstein, the chief executive of Las Vegas Sands, to emphasize the unpredictability in the city’s gambling industry during the company’s third-quarter earnings call:
“I believe we should exercise caution,” he stated. “The forecasts for Macau over the past several years have been inaccurate because we lack knowledge regarding who will arrive or when they will close the market. It has been closed for an extended period. It’s somewhat foolish to make empty projections about EBITDA.
“Can we achieve EBITDA profitability? Certainly. If it reopens tomorrow and individuals return, we will be profitable. It will occur at some point. But I believe it’s challenging to determine whether we will be EBITDA profitable in the fourth quarter without comprehending the effect of the November visitor teams and how the “zero-COVID” policy will be carried out. Consequently, there are numerous unknowns in Macau, making it difficult to speculate.”