Gambling operator Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) admitted yesterday that the influx of Chinese tourists during the first week of October, a time when a lot of people travel in the country, was worse than they expected.
“We can see that the flow of people is not enough, it has to be step by step. It is worse than we expected, ”SJM Executive Director Angela Leong told reporters on the sidelines of an event to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
After the reopening of individual and group visas from mainland China to the territory on September 23, suspended since the beginning of the pandemic, the tourism and gambling sector expected the week around the celebrations of National Day of China (the so-called “Golden Week”) could help losses in the gambling capital of the world, in crisis due to border restrictions and the absence of tourists.
Official figures point to 120,165 visitors, a fall of 86.6% in the first six days of the “Golden Week”, compared to the same period last year. The ‘golden week’ in October is the second largest mass movement in China.
As for the receipts of SJM, founded Stanley Ho, who died at the age of 98 on May 26, the magnate’s last wife, Angela Leong said, without saying, that “they have decreased a lot”.
“The recipes are not very satisfactory, they are worse than we expected”.
The latest known data indicate that SJM, 22 casinos in the territory, recorded losses of 1.41 billion Hong Kong dollars (155 million euros) in the first half of 2020, due to the impact of covid-19.
In the first nine months of the year, the drop in revenue for all Macau casinos was 82.5%, compared to the same period in 2019.
Macau casinos closed 2019 with revenues of 292.4 billion patacas (about 31.1 billion euros).
