Macau's 37 casinos in operation last month generated 4.4 billion patacas (US$555 million) in gross gaming revenue (GGR), the lowest so far this year, according to data released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination (DICJ) today.
While last month's GGR rose by 234 percent year on year, it fell by 47.4 percent month on month.
Observers attributed the situation to two weeks of reinforced COVID-19 prevention and control curbs that were imposed by the government last month in response to a four-member Delta variant family cluster.
May produced the casino industry's highest monthly GGR so far this year, at 10.4 billion patacas.
GGR in the first eight months of the year grew by 70.1 percent year on year to 61.9 billion patacas.
The government's 2021 budget forecasts a GGR of 130 billion patacas. Requesting anonymity, a local casino executive told The Macau Post Daily today he expected this year's GGR to stay below the government's target.
Macau's casinos pay 35 percent of their GGR as direct tax to the government, apart from a string of other "contributions" to public entities accounting for a around four percent of their GGR.
In August, 37 of Macau's 41 casinos owned by six rival operators (SJM, Galaxy, Sands, Melco, MGM, Wynn) were in operation. Four of SJM's 22 casinos have been suspended by the company for some time, according to DCIJ data.
Galaxy owns six casinos, Sands owns five, Melco owns four and Wynn and MGM two each.
