Macau’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) rose 24.8 percent month-on-month last month, according to figures released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) this week.
Analysts said that Macau’s casinos should thank the mainland’s Labour Day vacationers for the uptick.
Macau-based media outlet Inside Asian Gaming (IAG) attributed May’s increase to “a strong Labour Day holiday and slightly eased border restrictions with mainland China.”
IAG pointed out that May “began on a stronger than expected footing with 136,647 visitors arriving in Macau during the [mainland’s Labour Day] Golden Week (April 30 to May 4), at a daily average of 27,329 visitors.”
However, gross gaming revenue (GGR) fell 68.0 percent year-on-year to 3.34 billion patacas (US$415 million), the inspectorate announced on Wednesday.
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 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, its 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 specifically bans concessionaires from selling 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. All the city’s six current gaming operators have said they will join the upcoming tender for up to six concessions.
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 on adjacent Zhuhai city’s Hengqin island.
