GGRAsia – Macau govt reminds casinos on Covid contingency planning

Macau govt reminds casinos on Covid contingency planning

Sep 29, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Macau’s gaming regulator says it held a meeting on Monday (pictured) with the city’s six casino operators and also the lottery and sports betting concessionaires, reminding them to have contingency plans in case of any escalation of Covid-19 risk in the city.

The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau gave the information via social media, in a Monday posting.

The bureau, also known by its Portuguese-language acronym as DICJ, also mentioned it had asked the gaming companies to have “response teams” set up and trained for dealing with any Covid-19 “emergency”.

The regulator mentioned the need for plans to deal with any guests that might become “stranded” in the operators’ respective properties; understood to be a reference to short-notice changes that might occur to travel rules. Planning was also required for “evacuating” guests, if necessary, the bureau stated.

In a separate release – also lodged via social media – the Macau gaming regulator said it would conduct spot checks on casino floors, of gaming patrons’ health code declarations. This would be a task additional to the bureau’s “regular” patrols on the city’s gaming floors to check for casino operators’ compliance with Covid-19 prevention measures.

Macau authorities reported two fresh cases of Covid-19 over the weekend, which resulted in what the local government termed “immediate pandemic prevention” for the city.

In tandem, a 14-day mandatory quarantine rule had been imposed on Sunday (September 26) for those entering Zhuhai in the neighbouring mainland province of Guangdong, from Macau – including mainlanders returning from a Macau trip. The measure will remain in force at least until the end of Thursday (September 30), except for those working in the logistics industry, funerals sector or in medical services, according to the latest update from the authorities of Macau and Zhuhai.

The Macau authorities reported a total of seven new Covid-19 cases between the weekend and Tuesday. Six of them involved security guards working in hotels used for quarantine purposes.