A report released by the Chinese newspaper, South China Morning Post, regarding the China’s new visa restrictions for people interested in visiting the island of Macau, has revealed the real consequences this measure is having over the stock value of several U.S gambling and hotel operators currently running business in Asia, including several Las Vegas based corporations. The South China Morning Post has reported that Chinese mainland authorities have discretely changed some of the visitation policies for the residents of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, who constitute one of the biggest customer sources for the casinos and hotels located in Macau.

According to the new measured, residents of Guangdong now are allowed one trip every three months instead of every two months. The Hong Kong-based paper also expressed that this new policy, which quietly took effect last October 1^st, is intended to reduce the cash flow coming from mainland China and to restrict and regulate the development of more infrastructure intended to allocate more gambling halls and casinos.

Several U.S companies own properties in Macau, including the famous Las Vegas hotel operators, MGM Mirage, Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Las Vegas Sands Corp, which is currently working in the development of new projects in the Chinese territory. The main concern among these companies is the effect that the new measure is having over share value in the U.S stock market, shares of MGM, fell $3.23, or 12.1%, to close at $23.56. Wynn lost $6.35, or 7.9%, closing at $73.84. Las Vegas Sands saw a reduction of $4.81, or 15.4%, to $26.51.

The new visa policy follows several measures taken by China to restrict visits to Macau and announced in June. Guangdong residents had been allowed to stay in Macau for seven days once every two months. Andy Wu Keng-kuong, president of the Travel Industry Council of Macau and business analyst, told the South China Morning Post that the visa limits could deeply impact Macau’s gambling industry, however, Wu says that such situation can change if Macau’s visitation numbers continue to grow as it did in the last year.