{"id":129628,"date":"2020-03-12T09:30:43","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T16:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=129628"},"modified":"2020-03-12T10:11:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T17:11:22","slug":"macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Macau Mulls Relaxing China Travel Controls, Considers Boosting European Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Officials in Macau are evaluating relaxing travel controls on visitors looking to enter the Special Administrative Region (SAR) from mainland China. That’s while also considering restrictions on the number of European travelers seeking admittance to the gaming mecca because of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Macau may ease travel restrictions with China, but European visits could be severely limited. (Image: CNBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Macau Health Bureau believes the COVID-19 situation on the mainland is improving and the peninsula itself hasn’t had a confirmed case of the respiratory illness in over a month, potentially paving the way for easing previously implemented entry bans.<\/p>\n

The current situation of COVID-19 in mainland China is easing, infection numbers in many provinces and cities have not increased for many days, so we are evaluating the current policies towards mainland China,\u201d said members of the health bureau at a Wednesday press briefing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The news comes at a critical time for the world’s largest gaming hub, emerging three weeks after a 15-day closure of casinos there ended. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, visits to Macau have slowed to a trickle, and gross gaming revenue (GGR) through the first eight days of this month was lower by 79 percent<\/a> on a year-over-year basis.<\/p>\n

European Ban Being Considered<\/h2>\n

While Macau authorities are mulling easing restrictions on visits from mainland China \u2013 the primary source of the SAR’s gamblers \u2013 harsh bans on travelers from Europe are being evaluated.<\/p>\n

\n

Italy, the Eurozone’s third-largest economy, has become one of the global epicenters of the virus. The country is currently under a national lockdown, including severe travel limitations. As of Wednesday, the virus caused 831 deaths there, an increase of about 200 in just 24 hours. Italy’s Civil Protection Agency said that, as of Wednesday evening, there were 12,462 confirmed cases of the respiratory illness there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cHowever, regarding the current situation of the epidemic in European countries, we are considering placing more European countries on the high-risk areas list. We will announce the latest measures soon,\u201d said the Macau Health Bureau.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Italy, France, Germany, and Spain<\/a> are among several countries deemed \u201chigh risk\u201d by Macau authorities, meaning the SAR’s officials are taking steps to limit travel to and from those nations.<\/p>\n

Looking Forward<\/h2>\n

Even if some travel controls are eased, it’s still far from business as usual on Macau, where just half the table games at casinos are currently operational. Additionally, South Korea \u2013 an important contributor to Macau’s gaming economy \u2013 is on the SAR’s list of high-risk countries.<\/p>\n

In late February, 24 Asian airlines<\/a> confirmed that they will be limiting or canceling service to the peninsula this month, citing the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

While the COVID-19 situation appears to be improving on mainland China, Beijing isn’t yet calling it fully contained. That presents a hurdle for Macau’s return to normalcy, because until policymakers can say with some level of certainty that the virus is controlled, the ban on the individual visit scheme (IVS) \u2013 an important source of visas for mainland gamblers looking to enter Macau \u2013 is likely to remain in place.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Officials in Macau are evaluating relaxing travel controls on visitors looking to enter the Special Administrative Region (SAR) from mainland China. That’s while also considering restrictions on the number of European travelers seeking admittance to the gaming mecca because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Macau Health Bureau believes the COVID-19 situation on the mainland is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":129634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,62],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMacau Could Ease China Travel Restrictions, Europe Is a Different Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Macau is considering relaxing travel restrictions to and from mainland China, but SAR officials are also mulling expansions of European bans.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Macau Could Ease China Travel Restrictions, Europe Is a Different Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Macau is considering relaxing travel restrictions to and from mainland China, but SAR officials are also mulling expansions of European bans.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-12T16:30:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-12T17:11:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/macau2-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1910\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/\",\"name\":\"Macau Could Ease China Travel Restrictions, Europe Is a Different Story\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/macau2-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-12T16:30:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-12T17:11:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"Macau is considering relaxing travel restrictions to and from mainland China, but SAR officials are also mulling expansions of European bans.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/macau2-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/macau2-1.jpg\",\"width\":1910,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"Macau may ease travel restrictions with China, but European visits could be severely limited. (Image: CNBC)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Asia Pacific Gaming\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asia-pacific-gaming\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Macau Mulls Relaxing China Travel Controls, Considers Boosting European Ban\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\",\"name\":\"Todd Shriber\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Todd Shriber\"},\"description\":\"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Macau Could Ease China Travel Restrictions, Europe Is a Different Story","description":"Macau is considering relaxing travel restrictions to and from mainland China, but SAR officials are also mulling expansions of European bans.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Macau Could Ease China Travel Restrictions, Europe Is a Different Story","og_description":"Macau is considering relaxing travel restrictions to and from mainland China, but SAR officials are also mulling expansions of European bans.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2020-03-12T16:30:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-03-12T17:11:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1910,"height":1000,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/macau2-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Todd Shriber","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@etfgodfather","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Todd Shriber","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/","name":"Macau Could Ease China Travel Restrictions, Europe Is a Different Story","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/macau2-1.jpg","datePublished":"2020-03-12T16:30:43+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-12T17:11:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85"},"description":"Macau is considering relaxing travel restrictions to and from mainland China, but SAR officials are also mulling expansions of European bans.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/macau2-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/macau2-1.jpg","width":1910,"height":1000,"caption":"Macau may ease travel restrictions with China, but European visits could be severely limited. (Image: CNBC)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-could-ease-china-travel-restrictions-europe-is-a-different-story\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Asia Pacific Gaming","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/asia-pacific-gaming\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Macau Mulls Relaxing China Travel Controls, Considers Boosting European Ban"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85","name":"Todd Shriber","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","caption":"Todd Shriber"},"description":"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/","https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}