Macau Locks Down to Stamp Out Omicron

Macau shuts down its casinos this week, gaming stocks fall

From today casinos in Macau will be shut for a week in a bid to clamp down on Covid-19 Omicron infections that have spiked -- to 71 infections on Saturday. It has a total of 1,526 infections. This compares to Hong Kong's 1.271 million cases.

For Macau 71 cases is a lot considering it had zero infections for the longest time, and the random case here and there.

This is the first time since February 2020 -- when the pandemic first began -- that casinos are closed temporarily. 

All residents will face a battery of PCR tests

When news broke about the impending lockdown, gaming shares fell between 6.1 percent for SJM Holdings, founded by the late casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun, and 7 percent for Sands China, a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands.

Schools and entertainment venues, such as bars and cinemas had already closed because of rising infections and casinos were the last to shut down.

Only those businesses deemed essential are allowed to stay open, otherwise everyone else needs to stay at home. There is no dine-in service at restaurants either. 

The word is that Beijing is not happy with its "favourite child" up until now, and may be using the pandemic as an opportunity to take down the gambling industry several notches in an attempt to make Macau less dependent on gamblers.

However, this will be a tall order as this is the only industry modern Macau has known since the 1960s when Ho won the former Portuguese colony's monopoly gambling license.

Beijing plans to minimise gambling in Macau

In the meantime, while 91 percent of Macanese residents have received two doses of the vaccine -- many of which are probably Sinovac -- the numbers are even less clear for those who have gotten boosters.

Macau is like Hong Kong in that they are both at the mercy of China when it comes to reopening borders.

But Macau only has 600,000 people and doesn't have the volume to support the economy in the long term on its own, whereas Hong Kong still seems to find money to open restaurants and shops, though not at the rate of replacing the ones that have closed.

So we will eagerly watch what happens in Macau this week to see if the lockdown works according to the "zero Covid" strategy, and how the city will be remade even further into China's image...