A local gaming employees’ association has urged the Macau SAR government to cancel social distancing policies currently imposed on the city’s gaming floors.
Macau closed all 41 casinos for 15 days in February 2020 following the initial outbreak of COVID-19, with strict social distancing measures introduced upon their reopening. Those measures included limiting the number of gaming tables allowed to open on any casino floor to no more than half to ensure adequate space between open tables, and requiring one empty seat between seated guests at each table. Guests were also banned from standing at or near gaming tables.
The New Macau Gaming Staff Rights Association submitted a petition letter to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau on Wednesday, calling for those social distancing requirements to be scrapped.
The Association stated instead its belief that other preventive measures such as wearing masks, temperature checks at casino entrances and use of the green health code was enough to ensure the safety of gaming staff and customers.
Macau announced on 3 March that it had canceled a requirement for anyone entering a casino to provide a negative virus test result. That requirement had been implemented in July 2020 in response to the resumption of the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) for visitors from mainland China.
The New Macau Gaming Staff Rights Association said that since customer flow had shown strong recovery since the removal of mandatory virus tests, others preventive measures could be removed as well in order to boost gaming revenues.
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