The coronavirus has caused worldwide chaos economically, and the casino industry has been no different. We all know that sports betting has suffered immensely as it has basically been canceled around the globe and the casinos in Macau were among the first to be closed when the COVID-19 pandemic started. A few months later we can still not estimate the total impact the coronavirus will have on the Australian casino industry or the global gaming industry as a whole. Two of Australias biggest employers are the casino groups Crown Resort and Star Entertainment. Both have had to lay off thousands of staff when the government closed down all casinos March 23 due to the coronavirus. At the Crown resort alone, 95% of the staff, more than 11,000 people are now unemployed and from the Star group another 8,500. Both companies expect to be able to weather the storm caused by the COVID-19 but depending on how long the shutdown will continue, it may take a long time before the industry completely recovers. Let’s take a look at what’s going on.
194,000 pokies out of commission
Before you even look into the number of pokies out of commission and where they were located, it’s simply staggering that there are close to 200,000 in Australia alone. As many of you know, pokies aren’t just located in physical casinos, they can be found in bars, pubs, sometimes restaurants, and even nightclubs. This is a simply staggering number of pokies to have out of commission, and we would hate to think of the revenue lost as a direct result of this.
While figures are not publicly available for the percentage of revenue generated for pokies at these various establishments, we can only guess that this would be quite a serious blow to any business’s bottom line. The only positive to take from this is that those who may be struggling with addiction to pokies now have no option, and this time away could give them the chance to pause and reflect on their pokies use in general.
Millions lost in revenue from physical casinos
Once again, there aren’t any physical casinos that have reported exact figures in terms of lost revenue yet, but we are 100-percent sure that it will be in the millions. Given that physical casinos have already been closed for weeks on end, with some of them turning 6 and 7 figures in revenue per day, we simply did the math. In addition to this, the physical casinos will still have all of the overhead bills and unless they own the building outright, they will still be paying rent on the property.
They are experiencing all of this at a period in time in which there is not a single cent coming through the front doors either. This would be enough to bring any business to its knees, which brings us on to the next major point of the impact of the coronavirus on the Australian casino industry.
As high as 95% of people losing jobs in the casino industry
We could not believe this figure at first, but sadly this is the case. Major institutions have publicly announced that they have needed to lay off up to 95% of their workers involved in hotels and casinos around the nation. This figure is only this high for those businesses that have not qualified for the grants put in place by the government, although unfortunately, it is a reality that many casino businesses have not met the requirement.
Some casinos have put workers on temporary leave, but some have needed to ax the jobs altogether. Obviously, this is nothing personal, it is just a necessity given the current economic climate. When these casinos still have bills to pay in terms of rent and overheads, they naturally need to reduce other costs where possible, and in this case, it would be the workers that are taking the hit.
Where do we go from here?
This all may seem a bit doom and gloom, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. There are now promising signs that Australia is pulling through the coronavirus pandemic, largely thanks to the quick and concise action taken by the government. Australia is certainly one of the countries that are looking like it will get back on its feet sooner than others, and all of the figures concerning mortality rate and infection rates are heading in the right direction.
We cannot say for sure as of yet when these casinos could open, as there are many other factors in the air which we simply cannot predict yet. The good news is that the Crown has secured fundings to continue their construction of the Crown Sydney, expected to open in December 2020, employing more than 2000 people. Overall, when the casinos do open again there will be a flourish of jobs opened back up, casino gaming enthusiasts will be able to go and enjoy themselves again, and the casino industry as a whole will start to recover.
This is something that we are all looking forward to, and we hope that it will be sooner rather than later.
