Macau's gross gaming revenue (GGR) fell 55.8 percent to 3.67 billion patacas (US$454 million) last month, the lowest monthly figure since September 2020, when local casinos' takings amounted to just 2.2 billion patacas, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) announced today.
Month-on-month, GGR was down by 52.6 percent in March, when the COVID-19 case load worsened to levels not seen since early 2020 in mainland China and Hong Kong - Macau's most important visitor markets.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case in January 2020. Foreign nationals without a local ID card have been barred from Macau since March 2020 to protect the local population from imported novel coronavirus infections. However, compatriots from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan have been allowed to enter Macau since the start of the pandemic but are subject to a range of COVID-19 prevention measures which have been constantly readjusted by the local government in line with changes in the pandemic situation.
In pre-pandemic 2019, foreign nationals accounted for just 7.8 percent of Macau's 39.4 million visitor arrivals.
In the first quarter, GGR dropped 24.8 percent year-on-year to 17.77 billion patacas.
Baccarat is the most popular game of chance in Macau's casinos, generating 88 percent of GGR last year. At the end of last year, Macau had 42 casinos (the operations of four of which were suspended at that time).
Photo courtesy of Roland Scheicher/Wikipedia
