{"id":29717,"date":"2015-07-02T12:29:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T19:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=29717"},"modified":"2015-07-02T12:30:29","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T19:30:29","slug":"china-relaxes-travel-restrictions-to-macau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-relaxes-travel-restrictions-to-macau\/","title":{"rendered":"China Relaxes Travel Restrictions To Macau\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Macau,
News that China might be attempting to stabilize Macau\u2019s economy prompted a rise in casino shares this week, but there\u2019s a smoking ban in the offing. (Image: Bloomberg.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Macau reports its 13th straight month of revenue declines, at last some good news for the troubled former Portuguese colony: Beijing has eased travel restrictions to the region.<\/p>\n

Soon, travelers from the mainland will be permitted to stay in Macau for seven days, as opposed to five, and will be permitted to visit twice every 30 days, as opposed to twice every 60 days.<\/p>\n

The market responded positively to the news.<\/p>\n

Shares in Las Vegas Sands<\/a> rose 4.1 percent to $52.17, while Wynn Resorts gained 3.9 percent and MGM 3.3 percent.<\/p>\n

The Chinese government imposed the restrictions last year as a measure to prevent tourists holding Chinese passports supposedly transiting through Macau from overstaying there.<\/p>\n

Beijing suspected that many tourists would obtain travel visas to other destinations via Macau so that they could stay and gamble in the enclave.<\/p>\n

Suffered Enough<\/b><\/h2>\n

The move suggests that China may have decided that Macau\u2019s economy has suffered enough and is attempting to stabilize it. The government\u2019s recent anti-corruption drive has scared off the enclave\u2019s high rollers that once accounted for 60 percent of its revenues.<\/p>\n

China believes that many of the VIP high rollers, so heavily courted by Macau and its junket operators, are corrupt Communist Party officials guilty of embezzling public money.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A separate crackdown on illegal money transfers is hurting Macau\u2019s bottom line further. Visitors from the mainland are permitted to bring no more than 20,000 yuan ($3,200) at a time and can only withdraw 10,000 yuan ($1,600) per day, per card, from cash machines.<\/p>\n

Until recently visitors were able to swerve the restriction by using their debit cards to buy expensive goods from pawnshops and jewelry stores based at the casinos, and then trade them for local currency.<\/p>\n

However, recent restrictions on the use of UnionPay, China\u2019s only domestic bank card, has severely curbed the flow of cash into the enclave.<\/p>\n

Smoking Ban Looms<\/b><\/h2>\n

While Macau\u2019s casino operators briefly had reason to cheer, there were dark clouds gathering on the horizon, and they weren\u2019t clouds of cigarette smoke.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday the Government of Macau<\/a> announced that it will push ahead with its proposed blanket smoking ban, a move that will likely delay the industry\u2019s recovery.<\/p>\n

The government introduced a partial smoking ban last year, which restricted smoking VIP rooms and special smoking lounges only. However, under the regulations, Macau\u2019s casinos will be forced to go completely smoke free, with even electronic cigarettes becoming prohibited.<\/p>\n

No timeline has been provided for the implementation of the new rules, but Karen Tang, analyst at Deutsche Bank, believes it\u2019s likely the law will be passed in Q4 of this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Macau reports its 13th straight month of revenue declines, at last some good news for the troubled former Portuguese colony: Beijing has eased travel restrictions to the region. Soon, travelers from the mainland will be permitted to stay in Macau for seven days, as opposed to five, and will be permitted to visit twice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":29718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,13,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChina Relaxes Travel Restrictions to Macau\u00a0<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Macau travelers from China will be permitted to stay longer under new rules, but an impending smoking ban could delay economic recovery\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China Relaxes Travel Restrictions to Macau\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Macau travelers from China will be permitted to stay longer under new rules, but an impending smoking ban could delay economic recovery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-relaxes-travel-restrictions-to-macau\/\" \/>\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=\"2015-07-02T19:29:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-07-02T19:30:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/0605_macau_630x420.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"420\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-relaxes-travel-restrictions-to-macau\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-relaxes-travel-restrictions-to-macau\/\",\"name\":\"China Relaxes Travel Restrictions to Macau\u00a0\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-relaxes-travel-restrictions-to-macau\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-relaxes-travel-restrictions-to-macau\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/0605_macau_630x420.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-02T19:29:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-07-02T19:30:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Macau travelers from China will be permitted to stay longer under new rules, but an impending smoking ban could delay economic recovery\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-relaxes-travel-restrictions-to-macau\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-relaxes-travel-restrictions-to-macau\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-relaxes-travel-restrictions-to-macau\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/0605_macau_630x420.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/0605_macau_630x420.jpg\",\"width\":630,\"height\":420,\"caption\":\"News that China might be attempting to stabilize Macau\u2019s economy prompted a rise in casino shares this week, but there\u2019s a smoking ban in the offing. 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