Macau Casinos Kept Tables Running as Storm Tapah Snarled Flights and Ferries

Posted on: September 8, 2025, 10:28h. 

Last updated on: September 8, 2025, 10:39h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.
  • Casinos stayed open; nongaming services paused during Tapah threat
  • Flights canceled; ferries halted; transport resumed after downgrade Monday
  • DICJ empowered after Hato to order emergency gaming suspensions

Macau’s casino floors largely remained open during its brush with Severe Tropical Storm Tapah over the weekend, although the storm disrupted the links that feed the casino economy — such as airports and ferry terminals – as well as nongaming amenities.

Macau casinos; Typhoon Tapah; flight cancellations; ferry suspension; non-gaming services
A satellite image of Severe Tropical Storm Tapah as it made its way toward China’s south coast on Saturday. While it missed Macau by about 50 miles, it caused disruptions to services in the gambling hub. (Image: BNN)

Operators across Cotai and the peninsula suspended nongaming services, including select restaurants, shops, outdoor amenities, and free shuttle buses, with services resuming once the storm was downgraded on Monday, GGRAsia reported.

The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) confirmed one Mocha Clubs slot venue in the Inner Harbour, an area prone to flooding, closed as a precaution during the storm window.

Storm Weakening

Tapah made landfall around 50 miles from Macau, near Taishan, Guangdong province, around 8:50 a.m. Monday. Sustained winds near 110 km/h prompted tens of thousands of evacuations and closures across the province, AP reported. The storm is expected to continue moving northwest, away from Macau, and to continue to weaken.

On Monday, Macau saw minor flooding in low-lying spots and a yellow storm-surge alert early in the day, which eased to blue before being lifted at noon, according to Macao News and government advisories.

The outlet reported 81 flight cancellations across Sunday and Monday, plus 29 delays and nine reschedules at Macau International Airport. GGRAsia put the number of cancellations at 91, noting 41 were mainland China routes, with others bound for Taiwan and Southeast and Northeast Asia.

Sea links, critical for same-day gamblers and mass-market tourists, were hit too. Ferry services between Macau and Shenzhen were suspended through most of Sunday and all of Monday, while Macau-Hong Kong ferries paused Sunday evening and resumed Monday afternoon after the alert eased, according to transport notices cited by GGRAsia and updates compiled by Macao News.

Tapah Was No Hato

Typhoon season typically falls between July and September in the region, reaching its peak in August, which also happens to be the height of the tourism calendar.

In August 2017, Macau was hit by Typhoon Hato, the region’s worst storm for 50 years. The enclave’s authorities were largely blindsided by Hato, whose severity local meteorologists had failed to predict. Meanwhile, the government was heavily criticized for slow rescue operations and a lack of contingency planning.

Incredibly, the casinos remained open during Hato because there was no legal framework in Macau’s gaming law that allowed them to close in a storm. The thinking behind this was that casinos held government concessions and were expected to operate continuously.

A year later, the government revised casino operating rules, empowering the DICJ to order the suspension of gaming during extreme weather emergencies.

When Typhoon Mangkhut passed close by later that year, officials were taking no chances. For the first time, the world’s biggest gambling hub closed its casinos – a 33-hour lockdown — by order of the government.