Macau Casinos Dealing With Labor CrisisThousands Of Hotel Rooms Closed |
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According to a report from Bloomberg, casinos in Macau have closed thousands of hotel rooms and scaled back other amenities due to a labor shortage.
“The lack of service staff is so severe that some hotels have reduced the frequency of maid services, cleaning rooms only after customers check out,” a Macau source told Bloomberg. “We didn’t expect the [mainland China] reopening would come so fast, so everybody’s struck unprepared.”
Earlier this year, Macau casinos were allowed to permit guests without masks. China has been battling another wave of Covid-19.
The city reported $5.3 billion worth of gambling revenue in 2022, off more than 50% from 2021 and the worst year for the casinos since 2004. Before the pandemic, Macau was a larger gambling market than Nevada.
The casinos lost a combined $1.6 billion in business due to Covid-19. According to the report, Macau lost more than 44,000 non-local workers during the pandemic.
Macau sees 90% of its visitors from mainland China and Hong Kong. Currently, tourism is at half of what it was pre-pandemic.
Still, gaming revenue has been improving. According to Reuters, Macau posted an 82.5% year-on-year rise in gambling revenue to 11.6 billion patacas ($1.4 billion) in January.
Macau, the only place in China with legal gambling, previously generated gambling revenue that dwarfed what was seen in Las Vegas. Macau’s gaming market hit a high of $45 billion in 2013. Before Macau’s downturn, it was predicted in a Wall Street Journal report that in 2017 the gambling market would hit $77 billion. It never did.
Nevada’s casinos reported a 2022 gaming win of $14.84 billion, up 10.52% over 2021. It was an all-time high for the Nevada casino industry. Gaming win of $13.42 billion in 2021 was the previous record.
It’s expected that Macau will eventually be No. 1 over Nevada again.
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