Inside Asian Gaming

IAG AUG 2022年8月 亞博匯 42 COVER STORY Billings know what’s going to happen? With all due respect – and I have plenty of that for the trio – they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. Between them they have tens of billions of dollars invested in irremovable bricks and mortar on terra firma in Macau. The concessionaires as a cohort have run up their debt from around US$5 billion to over US$20 billion during the COVID catastrophe. And the retendering process is looming in the coming few months. Under such circumstances they have no choice but to publicly affirm their commitment to Macau and act as cheerleaders assuring one and all that “the good times will roll again.” To do anything else sends a signal to the Macau government and the global investment community that could prove disastrous for their companies. MACAU KILLER NUMBER 1: COVID-ZERO It’s long been proven that the concomitant consequence of Macau’s COVID-zero policy is a state of economic-zero for the city. While the rest of the world learns to live with the virus, mainland China has adopted a strict COVID-zero approach. And where mainland China leads, Macau follows. A good chunk