Macau's gross gaming revenue (GGR) fell by 68.0 percent year on year to 3.34 billion patacas (US$415 million), the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) announced on its website today.
However, according to the inspectorate, GGR rose by 24.8 percent month on month.
May generated the second lowest monthly GGR in the first five months of the year. February has so far been this year's only month that produced a year-on-year increase in GGR - growing by 6.1 percent to 7.75 billion patacas.
In the first five months, GGR was down by 44.0 percent to 23.79 billion patacas. In December 2019, the last month before Macau began to be affected by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, GGR amounted to 22.83 billion patacas.
According to DICJ data, Macau's gaming industry comprised 42 casinos at the end of the first quarter, including four casinos whose operations had been suspended at that time.
As of the end of March, the sector comprised 6,025 gaming tables and 11,615 slot machines. At the end of 2019, there were 6,739 gaming tables and 17,009 slot machines, according to the inspectorate.
The local legislature is slated to vote on a government-initiated gaming industry amendment bill later this month. The bill proposes that the gaming industry be run up to six concessionaires. The bill does away with the possibility of concessionaires granted subconcessions.
Currently, the sector consists of three concessions (Galaxy, SJM and Wynn) and three subconcessions (Melco, Sands, MGM). The government has said it will extend the current concessions and subconcessions until the end of this year. A tender, the timing of which remains to be announced, will be held by the government to choose Macau's future gaming concessionaires.
Government-concessioned games of chance are Macau's so-called "dragon-head" industry, i.e., the city's top money spinner. However, the government is keen to reduce the industry's financial clout by diversifying the economy such as by promoting the setting-up of a bond market and the development of a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) industry in the adjacent Macau-Guangdong In-depth Cooperation Zone in adjacent Zhuhai city's Hengqin island.
