Macau Poker Rooms
A recent Pokerstars blog post discusses the new “Pokerstars Live” card room which is bringing in lower limits, as low as $1/$2 US, to plug a gap which remains at the lower stakes end of the poker scene in Macau. The card room is to be found at the City of Dreams Casino, and the full schedule for their very decent range of daily tournaments. The Poker Stars Room is situated in the City of Dreams complex, a stone’s throw away from the St. Regis and the Hard Rock Cafe hotels. The starting rake here is also 25/50 with buy-ins from 2,000 to 5,000 – which I personally really liked. Some 33 of Macau's 39 casinos have re-opened following the coronavirus shutdown but no one expects it to be business as usual for several months at least. Poker Idols – Phil Ivey. Macau Texas Holdem Poker Rooms Poker in Macau is nothing like poker in Las Vegas and the United States. You’ll struggle to find Texas holdem poker rooms at most Macau casinos, although they still do exist in some parts.
Gambling revenue in Macau dropped drastically in February thanks to a 15-day closure of the casinos in response to the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Macau Poker Room Rake
Casinos won $386.5 million in February, according to figures released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. The figure represents an 87.8 percent year-over-year drop, the largest in the history of the former Portuguese colony.
The gambling market was already in a downturn before February. Macau casinos closed out 2019 with three straight months of decline and an annual drop of 3.4 percent from 2018.
Poker clubs and rooms in Macau city Macau city is the ex-Portuguese colony at the shore of Southern China Sea. This province saved its colonial status up to 1999. Being a seaport city, Macau is the big financial center, partly because of its well-developed chains of gambling facilities.
Coronavirus only worsened an already slumping market as January numbers were down 11.3 percent before the government forced a more than two-week shutdown of casinos to help prevent any further spreading.
The only other casino closure in Macau’s history came in 2018 when a typhoon sparked a closure for 33 hours.
Analysts from JPMorgan Chase & Co. told Bloomberg that despite the record drop, the virus ultimately won’t stop gamblers from gambling.
Macau Poker Room
“We do not think COVID-19 will curb gamblers’ enthusiasm in a sustainable way, so its impact on the industry’s sustainable earnings power should be limited,” read a March 1 note.
Those same analysts are predicting a 24 percent decrease in gross gaming revenue for 2020. They are expecting a 70 percent drop in March and a 35 percent decline in the second quarter before revenue levels out as the virus becomes less of a public concern.