Crown cuts pokies to fight coronavirus

Crown and Sydney rival Star will switch off pokies in new social distancing measures for their casino complexes.

Crown is implementing measures at its Melbourne casino complex to cut the risk of coronavirus infection.

Rolling out hundreds of hand sanitiser units across its gaming floors was not enough to prevent Crown Resorts from shutting down half of its flagship Melbourne casino after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews declared a state of emergency.

Sydney rival Star Entertainment has also introduced social isolation measures, shutting down half of the poker machines and electronic gaming tables at its Pyrmont casino to limit the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Crown’s Melbourne shutdown comes after Mr Andrews threatened fines of up to $100,000 for businesses and $20,000 for individuals that don't comply with the state of emergency orders, which will run for at least a month and includes banning gatherings of more than 500 people.

The unprecedented orders come despite NSW hosting about half of the 250 COVID-19 infected Australians. But it stops short of closing casinos, like Macau authorities did in the early days on the coronavirus outbreak, resulting in billions of dollars of lost income.

Crown issued a statement to the ASX soon after Mr Andrews’s announcement, saying it would switch off every second poker machine and electronic gaming table at its Melbourne’s casino complex among other social isolation measures.

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“Following consultation with the Victorian government, Crown has implemented a policy covering a number of social distancing measures at its Crown Melbourne entertainment complex,” the company said in a statement to the ASX.

Other measures Crown has introduced include distancing seated table games and banning standing players at these games; restricting the number of each players at each stand-up table game to five players; and limiting the number of patrons in individual food and beverage, banqueting and conference facilities to 450 people.

“The social distancing policy for Crown Melbourne has been approved by the Victorian Chief Health Officer,” the company said.

The measures come after chief executive Ken Barton, who was appointed in January, installed hundreds of hand sanitiser units across Crown gaming floors in Melbourne and Perth to limit the spread of the disease.

He also scaled back shifts for employees, as patrons distanced themselves from the casinos as early as late January out of fear of catching the deadly virus.

Crown’s shares were down 10.2 per cent to $7.36 in afternoon trade on Monday, against a broader market fall of 4.9 per cent. Star Entertainment shares were trading down 21.3 per cent at $2.07.

“Crown has also implemented other precautionary measures across its Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth entertainment complexes, including the provision of alcohol-based hand sanitiser and more frequent and strengthened cleaning measures,” the company said.

“Crown will continue to closely monitor the pandemic and follow guidelines from relevant health authorities.”

Star Entertainment has also switched off every second gaming machine and electronic game table to “create additional distance” between players, as well as limiting the number of players at table games. It has also reduced the number of patrons in food and beverage, banqueting, conferencing and theatres to less than 500 people.

“The safety and wellbeing of our guests and team members remains of highest importance to The Star,” the company said in a statement to the ASX.

“We will continue to monitor developments with COVID-19 and follow recommendations we receive from relevant health authorities.”

Crown and Star’s social isolation measures, while disruptive, pale in comparison to Macau casino operators who were forced to shut down their entire operations in January and most of February to limit the spread of COVID-19, which originated in China.

The Macau shutdown cost casino operators billions of dollars in lost income and sent shockwaves through to Crown and Star.

The virus triggered Melco — backed by Macau billionaire Lawrence Ho — to walk away from acquiring a further 10 per cent slice in Crown on top of his 9.9 per cent stake. Combined with travel bans, it also dried up Australia’s international high roller market.

“There is no proficuous time for something like that. But obviously from our perspective (COVID-19) coming in when it did right at the pointy end of Chinese New Year … has been unfortunate from a business perspective,” Mr Barton said at Crown’s half year results last month.

At the same time, Star chief executive Matt Bekier said trading conditions remained challenging so far in the second half of the year, citing cautious consumer sentiment from the bushfires and the deadly coronavirus.

Star chairman John O’Neill took advantage of the low prices to snap up 33,800 shares in the group, for $69,966, according to a notice filed with the ASX. It took his total holding to 133,800 shares.