Inside Asian Gaming

IAG APR 2020年4月 亞博匯 24 COVER STORY equipment after Macau medical institutions revealed eight cases of patients who had recently traveled to and fromWuhan presenting with respiratory symptoms. It was 22 January when Macau announced its first confirmed case of what was now known to be a coronavirus, and only another 13 days until Macau ’ s Chief Executive made the stunning declaration that all 41 casinos (and all other gaming operations) in the Macau SAR would be closed for a period of 15 days to prevent the viral spread. Most have since re-opened, but with little resemblance to the thriving gaming floors that have typified Macau almost daily since the opening of Sands Macao signaled a new world order for the global casino industry in 2004. In the first month after casinos re-opened on 20 February, just 250,000 visitors entered Macau – a 92% decline on the average number of visitors to the city each month in 2019. LONG AND WINDING ROAD The news that Macau’s casino industry was shutting down, even if “only ” for 15 days, was met with widespread incredulity and it was no surprise to see IAG ’s breaking news story of that historic day quickly become our most viewed article of all time, with over 21,000 page views and being shared across social media around 7,500 times — staggering numbers for a B2B news website designed solely for industry professionals. But it soon became apparent that Macau was not alone. On Sunday 15 March, Philippines gaming regulator PAGCOR announced it was shutting down all gaming operations in Manila, effective immediately, for a full month in response to community quarantine measures implemented across the city. Forty-eight hours later PAGCOR extended the closures to cover the Philippines’ entire main island of Luzon, including the online POGO industry. Within days, having seen the “Big 4” Las Vegas operators in MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas