Chinese New Year is typically a busy tourism period in Macau, but celebrations have been lackluster the past few years due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. With borders now open and travel limits gone, up to 60,000 people per day could visit the special administrative region (SAR), the one place in China where gambling is legal.
But who will serve them? A shortage of employees could make this year’s celebration a little harder for casino resorts. According to the Macau Daily Times, those on the job may be called to work overtime and then some.
Cloee Chao Sao Fong, head of local gaming labor activist group New Macau Gaming Staff Rights Association, told the news outlet, “In the past two years and so, there had been many cases of table game staff assigned to other departments, like security or cage operation, when gaming floor traffic was weak.
“Now these table game staff are needed again … Hands do appear quite tight for the gaming floors for this Chinese New Year period.”
Rutger Verschuren, vice-chairman of the Macau Hotel Association, said businesses are scrambling to staff up for the busy period.
“As zero-Covid has suddenly been reversed and business improves within weeks, alongside high Covid numbers, employers are working hard to support the local community by driving recruitment efforts to hire local operational employees to do these jobs,” he said. “Regretfully, few people have shown interest due to the physical nature of the work and the hours/days and modest pay,” he added.
From June to August 2022, unemployment among locals rose 5.5 percent, the highest level since 2008, the Times reported. But non-resident workers could be hard to come by, as they must have their visas processed at home before coming to Macau, and companies must apply for new quotas before they can hire, a process that can take several weeks.
“The quotas of the blue card-holders who left during the pandemic have mostly been canceled since the quota was not been filled for several months, and so far, not many quotas have been reinstated or are still in the process of being reinstated,” Verschuren told the newspaper.
In comments to GGRAsia, Lei Iok Po, director of labor group Power of Macau Gaming, said, “From what we understood, gaming staff of some of the Cotai resorts—such as Galaxy Macau and Venetian Macao—have already been told to stand by for overtime shifts” for the 15-day holiday.
Meanwhile, the local government has reaffirmed its November projection for 2023 gross gaming revenues (GGR) at MOP130 billion (US$16.08 billion). That means casinos would have to bring in more than MOP10 billion per month for the year, said Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng.
Daily GGR for the first eight days of January was more than twice the daily average for the fourth quarter, said JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) in a January 16 report, an encouraging sign for 2023.
Despite relaxed Covid restrictions, lawmakers and health officials still advise travelers to mask up in public places.
