Global Casino Stocks Take A Hit As New COVID-19 Variant Causes Panic

Summary

• Omicron COVID-19 variant causes panic across the world
• Casino stocks plunge due to new COVID-19 strain
• Experts say no need to panic over omicron strain

Casino stocks around the world are taking a hit because of the new COVID strain called Omicron. The general fear is that it would lead to a repeat of what happened in 2020, with lockdowns and social distancing measures. News of the omicron variant has share markets around the world as the Dow Jones fell more than 900 points.

The main trigger came via the announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) when they said that the omicron “variant was serious and something to be concerned about“. Several countries have already shut down travel across countries and implemented stringent restrictions.

Gambling Stocks Plunge

The fear of omicron has got people talking about another lockdown and those fears have been projected on the global gaming market. Land based casinos suffered significantly during the lockdowns in 2020 and early 2021. Just as casino operators have started to get back to business as usual, they are once again facing the possibility of going into lockdown. This threat has impacted their share prices as most casino operators have reported a dip in share prices.

Las Vegas Sands Corp reported a dip of 4.9 percent in their share prices while Wynn Resorts dropped by 6 percent. Melco Resorts which has a strong presence in Asia suffered an even bigger dip as their share prices dropped by 10.3 percent. MGM Resorts was one operator that did not see a big decline in their share prices and that’s probably because they have their operations spread out rather evenly between the United States and Macau. MGM share prices went down only by 2.3 percent.

Some of the other U.S based casino operators also reported a dip in share prices. Caesars Entertainment fell by 2.92 percent, Rush Street Interactive dropped by 4.91 percent and Red Rock Resorts dropped by 2.84 percent.

Industry Experts Say Not To Panic

Industry experts believe that it is still too early to call as the impact of the omicron variant is still unknown at this point in time. They believe that between the vaccine rollout and social distancing measures, it may not be necessary for countries to go into lockdown and hence the land based casino industry should be able to survive this new COVID-19 scare.