By Neel Achary
Novel coronavirus, which has been discovered in Wuhan, China has spread all over the world already. The virus was diagnosed on the 31st of December and since then has been the main topic of discussion for almost three months. Coronavirus outbreak is something that the whole world is fighting and every country is actively involved in the process.
Some of the European countries, which have been the center of the virus outbreak, decided to go full lockdown. The decision was made according to the ongoing situation with the rapid infection of the very contagious virus. Countries such as Italy, Spain, and the UK, have already closed all of the borders and have been fighting the virus in isolation. Almost 250,000 people all around the world have been infected with the virus, the death rate is not very critical, though the nature of the virus is very contagious. Thus the recommendations such as self-isolation and remaining at quarantine are the number one priority.
The World Health Organization announced the epidemic as the pandemic and urged the countries to mobilize around the virus. Many countries have been asked to withdraw their own citizens from the countries of the epicenter and the campaign of #stayathome has started all over the world.
Due to the very rapid outbreak of the virus, all of the facilities have been closed all over the world. The major hit was for the gambling industry. Casinos have always been the point of meeting and the place where people would go for entertainment. Thousands of people go to casinos on a daily basis all over the world. Because of the pandemic, many countries, such as the UK and Australia were forced to shut down the casinos or at least implement some restrictions or limitations.
Macau was the first city to shut down all of the casinos. The decision was made once the first cases of nCoV-19 were discovered in the city. The casinos were shut for 15 days in order to prevent further spread of the virus. It was announced earlier this week that the UK also decided to close the casinos. The UK owns 30% of the casino operating in the European region. This should have a severe economical impact on the countries’ economy, though safety measures are necessary and obligatory.
Australia has also announced that one of the biggest casinos in Australia, Crown Resorts will cut the number of pokie machines in the country. The casino operator aims at removing every second pokie machine from the venue. This is done in order to maintain the social distance recommended by the WHO.
According to the current situation, the real online casino should stand as a solution to the existing problem. More and more people will address the online gambling sector in order to maintain the typical regime and to entertain themselves while being in self-isolation for several weeks. The online gambling industry is the one who might actually benefit from the current situation. Though, the developers and casino operators need to prepare for the massive work and the massive activity of the servers, due to the increased number of visitors.
European countries are not the only countries that have decided to shut the casinos. India’s biggest casino operator Delta Corp ordered the closure of the casino due to avoid further spread of the nCoV-19 in the country. The closure of the casino was also announced after the drastic fall of the shares by 9%. The casino closed at Rs77.95. During the previous week, the stock was trading at RS124, though the worth of the stock last year at exactly the same time was Rs241. The casino will remain closed until the 15th of April.
The announcement regarding the first confirmed coronavirus case was made by the Goa’s Health Minister Vishawajit Rane. The infected person was a Russian tourist. Goa also took the decision of restricting the borders for international visitors, which also respectively will affect the number of casino visitors.
Despite the hard times, the new casino in Nepal, in Kathmandu may be the additional hope for the Delta Corp. The casino was opened last month and operates in the ordinary regime. Another good news for Delta is that Goa’s Captain of the Ports Department agreed to register Deltin Caravella as a floating casino.