Inside Asian Gaming

IAG APR 2020年4月 亞博匯 22 COVER STORY “ W e anticipate Macau to be very, very quiet for quite a long time,” said Melco Resorts & Entertainment CEO Lawrence Ho during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. The call, conducted on 20 February, came less than 24 hours after Macau’s casinos had been granted permission to re-open following an unprecedented 15- day government-ordered closure to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, now officially known as COVID-19. Even at that relatively early stage, the impact on Macau’s visitor and revenue numbers had been staggering. Between 27 January and 10 February just 187,000 visitors arrived in Macau, representing a 90% year-on-year decline and decimating the hugely important Chinese New Year Golden Week. The closure of Macau’s casinos, implemented on 5 February after confirmation of a 10th positive test in the SAR, and tightened border restrictions saw visitor numbers fall even further to a low of just 2,800 on Saturday 8 February – at that stage the lowest single-day total since the Public Security Police Force began keeping records. To put that into perspective, average daily visitation to Macau through all of 2019 was 108,000. Little did Lawrence Ho know during Melco’s earnings call that the impact on Macau’s casino industry was just the tip of the iceberg. By now the origins of the novel coronavirus – believed to be a wet market in Wuhan – have been well documented. First identified in December 2019, but not widely reported until late January 2020, at time of writing the virus is known to have infected over 1.2 million people worldwide and caused more than 65,000 deaths. Considering the low level of testing worldwide, the true numbers are likely much more. Inside Asian Gaming first reported on COVID-19 on 6 January after officials from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau had met with representatives of the SAR’s six casino concessionaires to brief them on new measures aimed at preventing the outbreak of disease. That meeting was, IAG reported at the time, in response to a recent outbreak of pneumonia in nearby Wuhan and ensuing warnings from the Health Bureau that some local residents may have carried the virus back to Macau. Two days later, the DICJ said it would assist operators in the purchase of temperature detection 新 濠博亞娛樂主席兼行政總裁何猷龍在公司第 四季度財報電話會上表示：「我們預計澳門在 未來很長一段時間內都將冷冷清清。」 此次電話會議於2月20日舉行，彼時距離 澳門娛樂場被允許重新恢復營運時刻不足 24小時。此前澳門政府為阻止新型冠狀病毒（後被正式命名為 COVID-19）疫情的蔓延，史無前例的下令全澳賭場暫停營運15日。 即使是在相對較早的階段，該舉措對澳門遊客及博彩收入數 字的影響仍是驚人的。在1月27日至2月10日期間，只有18.7萬名 訪客抵澳，按年下降了90％，並摧毀了至關重要的農曆新年黃金 週。2月5日，在第10宗病例確診後，澳門實施了賭場關閉措施，及 至2月8日，更實施了更為嚴格的出入境管理政策，從而令訪客人 數進一步下降至2800人，該數據在彼時是自治安警察局公佈訪客 人數以來錄得的單日最低通關人次。相較之下，2019年全年的日 均訪澳人數為10.8萬人次。 而在新濠的那次財報電話會上，何猷龍所不知道的是，疫情 對澳門博彩業的影響，在當時只顯露了冰山之一角。 現有資料顯示，據信起源於武漢一個海鮮市場的新型冠狀病 毒於2019年12月被首次發現，但直至2020年1月下旬才被廣泛報 道。至本文執筆之時，該病毒已在全球造成逾120萬被感染，逾 6.5萬多人死亡，有鑒於全球核酸檢測水平不一，實際患者人 數可能更多。 《亞博匯》首次對COVID-19進行報道是在1月6日，彼時博 彩監察監管局（博監局）約見了澳門的六大博企代表，向他們 簡介預防疾病爆發的新措施。當時《亞博匯》報道稱該會議是 為了應對當時武漢附近爆發的肺炎，及衛生局警告稱病毒有 可能已隨訪澳人士進入澳門。 會議後兩天，在醫療機構通報8名最近曾到訪武漢的病人 出現呼吸道徵狀之後，博監局宣佈協助博企增購體溫探測設備。 至1月22日，澳門宣佈發現第一宗新型冠狀病毒感染的確 診病例，13天後，澳門行政長官作出令人震驚的公佈，要求關 閉全澳所有41間娛樂場及其他娛樂場所15日，以防新冠病毒 疫情在澳門的社區蔓延。 雖然15日後多數娛樂場重開，但不復自2004年澳門金沙 開業以來澳門博彩業異蓬勃發展的盛況——這個一直被視為 全球博彩業邁入一個新的世界秩序的象徵。 而在博彩業重開之後的一個月內，澳門僅錄得25萬名訪 客進入——相較2019年月均訪澳人數減少了92%。