Macau’s concessionaires confirmed that they had resumed normal casino operations on Monday, having suffered only minimal damage from the T10 Typhoon Mangkhut that slammed southern China over the weekend.
Just over a year since the similarly powerful Typhoon Hato killed 10 people and caused MOP$11.5 billion worth of damage city-wide, Macau was far better prepared this time around with the heaviest financial losses coming from the forced closure of all 42 Macau casinos for a 29-hour period from 11pm on Saturday night until 4am Monday morning.
Contacted by Inside Asian Gaming on Monday, Melco Resorts & Entertainment said its teams were “fully prepared to deal with the effects of Typhoon Mangkhut.
“The safety of our guests and colleagues are of utmost importance and we have been working closely with the government to ensure this has been and continues to be our priority,” Melco told IAG. “Our properties recorded minimal external damages and repairs are expected to be completed within the next few days for minimal disruption.
“All Melco properties including City of Dreams, Studio City and Altira have resumed normal operations. We thank our colleagues for the extraordinary efforts they have made to ensure guests and working colleagues’ safety and comfort.”
Galaxy Entertainment Group said it resumed gaming operations at 8am on Monday, four hours after being given the green light and “under close coordination with the relevant authorities.”
Late last week IAG observed large green nets being installed around Galaxy’s peninsula property StarWorld, designed to stop debris from striking glass doors at the hotel’s entrances.
Buddy Lam, Galaxy’s SVP of Public Relations, added that the closure and re-opening process “went very smoothly” with “no significant damage and most importantly, no serious injuries” reported.
MGM China said it was assessing damages but that none would affect operations which had all resumed normally. The company did, however, issue a press release announcing that it had postponed the sale of tickets to its popular Oktoberfest celebrations, with sales originally scheduled to commence on Monday.
SJM Holdings said that gaming operations at two of its properties – Casino Taipa and Casino Macau Jockey Club – remained suspended due to a power outage caused by flooding. However, the under construction Grand Lisboa Palace in Cotai was undamaged, safe and intact.
“Works on the site have been resumed after the typhoon with a focus on ensuring a safe environment for our workers,” SJM said. IAG observed guests at Casino Lisboa on the Macau peninsula being asked to enter via a side entrance on Monday due to high winds causing difficulties at the main entrance point, but the company said there was no damage to the property.
Despite emerging relatively unscathed from any major physical damage, brokerage Union Gaming said that Macau’s casino closures would inevitably hit their bottom line.
“Given that the blanket casino closure happened on an all-important weekend day, which typically generates significantly higher GGR than a weekday, we expect that somewhere between MOP$1.1 billion and MOP$1.5 billion in GGR will be lost,” said Union Gaming analyst Grant Govertsen in a note. “As a result, our initial September expectations of MOP$24.5 billion in GGR, implying growth of 14.7%, is now likely to be closer to a range of MOP$23.0 billion to MOP$23.3 billion, or growth of 7.7% to 9.3%.
“For the whole of 3Q18, Mangkhut is likely to have up to a 200bps impact on the growth rate, and we now estimate 12% growth instead of 14%.”
