Macau's gross gaming revenue (GGR) rose 43.7 percent to 86.8 billion patacas (US$10.8 billion) last year, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) announced today.
The figure is a marked improvement from 2021 when gross gaming revenue plummeted 79.3 percent to 60.4 billion patacas.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case in January 2020. In pre-pandemic 2019, GGR dropped 3.4 percent year-on-year to 292.4 billion patacas. In 2018, GGR increased 14 percent to 302.8 billion patacas.
Macau's games of luck generated record GGR of 360.7 billion patacas in 2013. Last year's GGR accounted for 24 percent of the one in the record revenue of 2013.
GGR last month rose 1.8 percent to 7.9 billion patacas year-on-year. December's GGR was up 17.9 percent month-on-month.
In response to the COVID-19 threat from overseas, foreign nationals without the right of abode in Macau have been barred from entering Macau since March 2020. Special entry regulations are in place for compatriots from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Even before COVID-19, tourists from these three Chinese regions have accounted for about 90 percent of the total number of visitor arrivals.
At the end of the third quarter of last year, 38 casinos were in operation, according to the latest available DICJ figures.
Macau's COVID-19 tally stands at 79, including two Omicron variant cases. No novel coronavirus deaths have been reported in Macau. Observers have described Macau as one of the world's safest places during the pandemic.
