Casinos lose 65% of their gaming revenues in March

Portugal’s 11 casinos have seen their gaming revenues plummet by 65% for March 2020 because of the social restrictions and economic uncertainty caused by Covid-19.

Income for March stood at around €9 million, an amount that compares to the €25.8 million generated in March 2019.

This sharp fall is essentially down to the closure of physical casinos from 14 March. Tróia has not released information about March’s revenues according to the Portuguese Casinos Association.

This fall in revenues has already led to the Solverde Group – which holds the concession for casinos at Espinho, Chaves and three in the Algarve (Vilamoura, Praia da Rocha and Monte Gordo – to lay-off the vast majority of its staff.

The Estoril-Sol Group has also not ruled out lay-offs because of the lack of revenues from its casinos.
The accumulated total for the first quarter of 2020 was €61.1 million, a fall of 17.5% compared with the €74.1 million made in Q1 2019. Excluding Tróia which has only released its January and February figures, Lisbon Casino registered the most negative performance for the quarter with a fall of 21.4% to €16 million.

Within the Estoril-Sol Group, held mostly by Stanley Ho, the Casino at Estoril suffered a 13% fall in the first quarter compared for the like-for-like period in 2019, to €12.8 million. The Póvoa casino saw a 17.9% fall in revenues to €9 million.

Within the Solverde group, headed by Manuel Violas, the Espinho casino saw a fall of 15.7% for the first three months of the year, totalling €9.9 million. Chaves saw a fall of 18.3% to €1.4 million. The three casinos in the Algarve saw revenues of €6 million, down 13%.

The Figueira da Foz casino held by Amorim Turismo saw €3 million in revenue for Q1, a fall of 20.1%.
The Pestana group which operates the Madeira casino saw gaming revenues plummet 10.3% for the quarter, registering €2 million.