The Crown Resorts Ltd (ASX: CWN) share price will be on watch on Monday after the Victorian State Government decided to remove the coronavirus exemption for the Melbourne casino complex.
The latest number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by another 51 in Victoria to 229 in the state.
Crown Resorts had initially been excluded from the social gathering rules which would allow the casino to keep operating as normal.
Earlier this week Crown had already announced a number of measures to lower the risks of spreading the coronavirus. Those measures were: deactivation of every second gaming machine and electronic table game, distancing at seated table games between players (including no standing players), restricting the number of players at each stand-up table game to five players, and restricting the number of patrons in individual food & beverage, banqueting and conference facilities to 450 people.
Crown's exemption removed
Earlier today, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said of the exemption: "That exemption is now over. The chief health officer has effectively revoked that and now Crown, like every other venue, will need to comply with the new orders.
"They will need to apply the same rules that are applied everywhere else because now we have reached the time where the chief health officer, in his judgement, he is not confident that the arrangements that were in place – and were appropriate – are appropriate for the future. We have always said we will follow advice, but advice will change, and this is exactly what we are seeing."
Will Crown Melbourne have to shut?
We don't know yet. How much of Crown's Melbourne complex do you have to apply the 100 people gathering to? Each room? A certain distance? The entire complex?
Crown went into a trading halt on Friday so that it could continue to work with the Victorian Government and it will make an announcement when it has further clarity on the outcome of these discussions. It employs at least 6,000 people in the casino and over 18,000 people in total.
Since 21 February 2020 the share price of Crown had fallen 48%.
