Typhoon Wipha Whiffs Macau, Casinos Remain Open to Help Protect the Public
Posted on: July 20, 2025, 06:57h.
Last updated on: July 20, 2025, 06:57h.
- Typhoon Wipha greatly fell short of weather forecasts
- Forecasted to be a strong hurricane, the cyclone was only a tropical storm upon landfall
- Macau casinos remained open to provide shelter
This weekend, Typhoon Wipha was the first storm to be issued a No. 10 hurricane signal, the highest on Hong Kong’s warning scale, since 2023. For China’s southern coast, the weather event fortunately underwhelmed forecasts.
Wipha, a common female name in Thailand meaning “splendor, radiance,” or luster,” made landfall just southwest of Macau, the casino capital of Asia, in the Guangdong Province city of Taishan.
It was categorized as a No. 10 typhoon by the Hong Kong Observatory as it approached land, a signal reserved for the deadliest of cyclones. But as the tropical cyclone reached the Pearl River Delta in the South China Sea, Wipha’s sustained winds were at 108 kph (67 mph), the equivalent of a tropical storm. It was quickly downgraded to a severe tropical storm.
Typhoons are the same weather phenomenon as hurricanes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says. Typhoon names in the region are chosen by member nations of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
Weathering the Typhoon
Ahead of what weather forecasters thought could materialize into a dangerous event, Macau casinos were instructed to remain open to protect visitors from leaving the resort properties.
While Macau’s border gates were closed, people inside the Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR) were told to take shelter. And in Macau, fewer buildings are safer and more structurally sound than the city’s many multibillion-dollar entertainment destinations.
The directive to stay open and operational came from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, or DICJ (the acronym is for the agency’s Portuguese spelling — Direcção de Inspecção e Coordenação de Jogos).
In order to protect the safety of the staff and guests in the casino and to prevent the risk of staff and guests gathering in the surrounding outdoor areas or attempting to travel due to the closure of the casino, the gaming premises and venues will be maintained in proper condition during the typhoon period, and the casino will make arrangements for the staff and guests to take a rest in the event of a typhoon,” a statement from the gaming regulatory said.
Many of the tens of thousands of casino resort workers live outside the city’s border gates.
“The DICJ will continue to coordinate with the gaming companies to ensure that the gaming premises and venues are properly protected against typhoons and that the rights of employees are protected in accordance with the law, in particular, the right to take rest and to be compensated accordingly,” the statement added.
City Dodges Casualty
Hong Kong and Macau were both spared by Wipha, as the tropical storm did not cause any loss of life. Early reports on Monday morning also suggested that there was no significant damage across the peninsula or on the Cotai Strip.
Nonetheless, Wipha caused economic damage, as nearly 200 flights were canceled at Macau International Airport and many trips to the casino town were interrupted or canceled. That will likely hamper the city’s July gaming outcome.
Macau’s gaming industry, the world’s richest, continues to inch closer to pre-COVID-19 levels. June marked the city’s fifth consecutive month of year-over-year growth.
However, through June 2025, gross gaming revenue of approximately $14.7 billion represents only 79.4% of the $18.5 billion that the six casino operators won during the same period in 2019.
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