Chinese Government aims to protect Macau casinos
Claims that casinos in wider Asian gaming industry “endanger Chinese citizens”
The bulletin from China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, says: “Casinos in overseas cities attract Chinese tourists to go abroad for gambling activities, disrupting the order of China’s outbound tourism market, and endangering the personal and property safety of Chinese citizens.”
As Macau continues to post reduced revenues caused by the pandemic, and looks towards regaining supremacy in the region post COVID-19, the Chinese government has come to its aid with the potential of blacklisting some of the South Pacific destinations as well as Russia to the north, and Australia further south. The imposition of travel restrictions on Chinese nationals traveling to these countries will have a huge impact as they greatly depend on a flow of mainland Chinese patrons.
Although the bulletin does not state which markets could potentially be blacklisted, John DeCree of Union Gaming speculated that, “Markets such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia, and Korea could all be possible targets of the travel ban. The PRC initiative is at least partially in response to ongoing online gaming, video streaming, and proxy betting as well as a further attempt to control capital outflows from the mainland.”
