Inside Asian Gaming

IAG DEC 2021年12月 亞博匯 112 TRADE EVENTS W hat will Macau look like in a post- COVID world? It’s a question that attracted significant attention during November’s MGS Summit, when industry experts offered their opinion on what would change and what would stay the same as the world’s biggest land-based gaming hub emerges from the global COVID-19 pandemic. While opinions varied wildly on exactly when Macau might resemble something like the city that generated MOP$292.46 billion (US$36.5 billion) in gross gaming revenues in 2019, there was widespread agreement on the fact that changes were inevitable – particularly on the casino floor. “You look around the Macau market at the moment and anything from 41% to 52% [of slot areas] have their electronic product turned off, so as floors get changed and rejigged and we understand what health departments want, the casino floor is going to change dramatically,” said Scientific Games Vice President and Managing Director, Asia, Ken Jolly. “That’s also going to reflect what players prefer in terms of how close they are. They will probably become a little bit more distant and product layouts will become different. There will be more pods rather than back-to-back banks so that we can get all the product on the floor turned back on.” Key to recovery will be the ability of Macau’s gaming and tourism operators to provide guests with confidence that they can move around in a safe manner. This has already been on display inmainland China, where domestic tourism surged by over 100% in the first six months of 2021 as tourists regained