Melco Resorts pins casino recovery hopes on premium mass gamblers

Casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment (MRE) lost over $368m in the second quarter of 2020 as COVID-19 choked its casinos in Macau, Manila and Cyprus.

Figures released Thursday show MRE generated revenue of just under $178m in the three months ending June 30, a nearly 80% decline from Q2 2019. The company booked negative earnings of $156.3m versus last year’s $448m earnings gain and a net loss of $368.1m versus a $101.8m profit.

MRE’s performance was slightly worse than the $364m loss in Q1, during which the company was forced to shut its Macau casinos for 15 days due to COVID. All Macau casinos have since struggled mightily due to travel restrictions on the Chinese mainland, which still haven’t been completely lifted.  

MRE’s Macau casinos suffered the same dramatic VIP turnover declines as the overall market, while the individual MRE casinos experienced wildly different luck in dealing with the few VIPs that did show up. City of Dreams and Altira Macau reported VIP win rates of 6.13% and 6.19%, respectively, around twice the upper end of the expected range. But Studio City’s win slumped to just 0.17%.