The number of closures of VIP junket rooms in Macau is going to be large. Prior to COVID-19, VIP gaming accounted for more than 46 percent of Macau’s $36.4 billion 2019 gross gaming revenue (GGR). Casinos share 39 percent of their GGR with the Macau government. It is believed that this will have a significant impact on the casino floor’s product mix. From a positive view, the floor may open up to more EGEs.
Asia Pioneer Entertainment (APE) sees an opportunity to put more EGEs on casino floors in the coming year. In fact, some of the operators have already started restructuring their floor plans to make space for more table games, ETGs and EGMs and to do so in a way that all inactive machines are fully utilized too (obeying the social distance requirements).
“With the new “Electronic Gaming Machine Technical Standards version 2.0” standards that are a must by the end of 2023, we foresee an increase of products that comply and the “replacement” of those that do not, for which we are now fighting very hard and are confident to be part of,” says Maria Garcia, business development consultant at APE. Feedback from the operators was positive, while APE is also working hard with our EGE manufacturer suppliers to meet 2.0 standards at an early date.
Despite the unprecedented impact of Covid on Macau’s gaming industry, we are optimistic about the sales for 2022-2023 and business will be back to normal as travellers return to Macau.
