Gambling revenue in Macau plunged 72.5% in October year-on-year, extending the steep coronavirus-driven declines of recent months but at a slower pace as visitors to the world's biggest casino hub.
Gambling revenue was 18.8 billion patacas ($2.4 billion), government data showed on Thursday, at the top end of analysts’ expectations that varied from a drop of 3 percent to a 1 percent growth. In 2019, the casinos in Macao contributed a revenue of around 36.73 billion U.S. Dollars, over three times of the casino gaming revenue in Nevada. The Macau gaming market fell to a five-year low in 2015, with casino revenue slowed by the sinking Chinese economy and government reform programs that crushed the high-end gambling business.
Casinos in Macau took in revenue of MOP1.76bn (£177.9m/€198.4m/$220.4m) in May, more than double revenue for April but down 93.2% year-on-year, as the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic continued to have a major impact on business.
Revenue for 2020 to date now totals MOP33.00bn, down 73.7% year-on-year. More than two third of this total continues to be from January’s revenue, which itself was down 11.3% from the year prior.
The continued low revenue figures – less than February and March, when casinos were ordered to close for 14 days – is likely mostly due to a decision on 25 March ordering all non-residents arriving in Macau to self-isolate for 14 days.
The territory’s government also announced on 30 May that gross domestic product (GDP) fell 48.7% in the first quarter of 2020, with the decline of the tourism and casino industry, as well as the gaming services industry, playing a large part.
In April, Macao’s head of government, chief executive Ho Iat Seng criticised the country’s “excessive dependence” upon the gambling industry. In Macau’s annual policy report, Ho said this dependence meant the special administrative region was especially hard-hit by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak.
November’s revenue does, however, represent the second highest total for the Chinese Special Administrative Region since it took in MOP22.13bn in January. That month was the last before the imposition of travel restrictions, resulting from novel coronavirus (Covid-19), which revenue for Macau’s casinos.
The month’s GGR was down 7.2% compared to the MOP7.27bn taken in October, though this was a smaller decline than seen in the same month last year, when revenue was 13.5% behind October.
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For the year to date, Macau has generated revenue of MOP52.62bn, down 80.5% on the MOP269.62bn brought in by the end of November last year.
Current year-to-date revenue is just over the MOP50.31bn brought in between January and February 2019 alone.
Macau’s travel restrictions have had a major financial impact on many casino operators. MGM Resorts International published results in October, showing that revenue from the operator’s properties in Macau was down 93.6% at $46.9m.
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Asian casino operator Galaxy Entertainment saw its GGR decline 93.9% in Q3, to HKD$867m (£84.4m/€94.6m/USD$111.8m). Q3 earnings for Melco showed a decline in revenue of 85.2%, as the operator reported a $386.9m loss.
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Macau’s Wynn Palace saw its revenue decline 97.4% year-on-year, bringing in just $15.7m in the third quarter, as the Wynn Macau property also saw revenue decline 89.2%, bringing in $51.4m. Travel restrictions in Macau contributed significantly to the operator posting a $831.5m net loss.