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On Friday the 13th, Alcina de Oliveira Alves, Associate of the CCA's Technology, Media and Telecommunications Department, wrote an opinion piece for Observador on the inevitability of bad luck in life as in gambling, analyzing Macau’s economic situation, in the face of the new COVID-19, as the moment China could reconsider its position in relation to online gaming, allowing its license.
In Macau, a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China, revenue from territorial gambling (casino operations) totalled more than 32 billion euros in 2018 and 2019, and casinos are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In view of the outbreak of COVID-19, and as a prevention measure, the Chinese government ordered the total closure of all casinos in the territory, and it is possible that, for each day of closure, casino dealers have lost revenue in the order of 100 million euros.
"Although online gambling is a different business from territorial gambling and, consequently, a player who goes to a casino to play French roulette may not be willing to play the same game on a computer and vice versa, the mere possibility of accessing online gaming would have left an open door for Macau gambling consumers, mainly Chinese as already mentioned, to continue playing. In theory, this measure could help reduce the decline in revenue that Macau casinos continue to register" stresses Alcina de Oliveira Alves.
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- Observador