Macau's 30 casinos generated gross gaming revenue(GGR) of 17.2 billion patacas last month, a year-on-year growth of 686.4 percent, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ has announced today.

August's GGR is the highest of any month since the government gradually eased COVID-19 travel curbs in January. Some 90 percent of Macau's visitor arrivals are from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.

Month-on-month, GGR in August was up by 3.3 percent.

Last month's GGR amounted to 70.9 percent of the one recorded in the same month of pre-pandemic 2019, which stood at 24.2 billion patacas. Macau confirmed its first novel coronavirus case in January 2020, which resulted in three years of entry curbs and mandatory quarantine for arrivals from abroad.

In the first eight months, the gaming sector produced GGR of 114.0 billion patacas, a year-on-year increase of 295.1 percent. Compared with the same eight-month period of 2019, this year's January-August GGR amounted to 57.5 percent.