Macau closes the casinos and goes into lockdown for the covid. A disaster for the gaming hub
The world's largest gambling center, Macau, will close nearly all casinos and non-essential businesses for a week starting Monday, due to the spread of a COVID-19 outbreak in the autonomous region on the south coast. of China.
AFP quotes A ndre Cheong, a senior Macau city official, who said in a press conference on Saturday that the gambling hub will go into "static management" between 11 and 18 July, during which casinos will be closed. Only essential businesses such as supermarkets, petrol stations and pharmacies will remain open.
The measure comes as Macau registered 71 new COVID infections on Saturday. A total of 1,374 infections have been recorded since June 18, a number low but high enough to prompt the city to implement Mainland China's strict zero-COVID policy.
The lockdown policy of #CCP has devastated Macau's economy, no tourist visit and all shops have to be closed. The channel for Chinese to launder money through casinos in Macau has also been completely closed. #Macau has no future under rule of CCP. #TakeDownTheCCP pic.twitter.com/YFjKs7mOuY
– Meeno (澳 喜 特 战 旅) (@ Meeno17043089) July 9, 2022
Macau is the largest casino center in the world and surpasses Las Vegas. More than half of the city's GDP comes from the gambling industry and casinos employ 20% of the population. The limitation measure will deal a severe blow to the city due to the economic impact resulting from the imposition of rigid closures and mass testing.
Zero COVID policies (especially the closure of Shanghai for two months) have triggered an economic slowdown in the world's second largest economy, after President Xi Jinping made it clear weeks ago that "COVID zero" will not disappear, rather it will be reinforced. The odds of reaching Beijing's 5.5% growth target for 2022 are diminishing due to the persistent threat of new lockouts.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that Beijing decided to release a whopping 1,500 billion yuan ($ 220 billion) of local "special" bonds in the second half of the year for infrastructure spending in order to offset the downturn. , but it would be easier to accept living with the covid.
In a few hours we will see how the stocks of Chinese companies linked to Macau will respond on the stock exchange. Definitely not good. These include the American companies Wynn Macau Ltd, Sands China Ltd and MGM China Holdings Ltd, which are likely to see the value of the shares decrease.
"In addition to the virus, the casino industry is facing other challenges, including a new law that significantly increases government control over operations and Beijing's crackdown on top-tier players to curb capital outflows," he adds. Bloomberg. Because Macau is the exit and recycling point of Chinese “non-transparent” capital, so what better way to control them in a moment of crisis than to shut everything down for covid-19?
In the end, the usefulness of lockdowns is also, if not above all, this.
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The article Macau closes the casinos and goes into lockdown for the covid. A disaster for the gaming hub comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/macao-chiude-i-casino-e-va-in-lockdown-per-il-covid-un-disastro-per-lhub-del-gioco/ on Sun, 10 Jul 2022 15:32:31 +0000.