Macau's gross gaming revenue (GGR) generated by its 30 casinos rose by 400.2 percent year-on-year to 19.5 billion patacas in October, hitting a new post-pandemic record, according to figures released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) today.
In January 2020, GGR amounted to 22.1 billion patacas. Last month's GGR accounted for 88.3 percent of the one recorded in January 2020.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case on January 22, 2020, resulting in a drastic decrease in local casinos' GGR for three consecutive years.
Month-on-month, GGR was up by 30.5 percent in October.
In the first 10 months of this year, GGR grew by 315.6 percent year-on-year to 148.4 billion patacas, accounting for 60.1 percent of the one in the first 10 months of pre-pandemic 2019.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng told lawmakers in August he expected GGR to reach between 170 billion and 180 billion patacas this year. GGR in 2019 stood at 292.4 billion patacas.
Last month's GGR was the highest so far this year.
October included the mainland's eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. Mainlanders accounted for 69.0 percent of Macau's visitor arrivals in September, according to the latest available official statistics. In the first nine months, Macau recorded 19.9 million visitor arrivals, a year-on-year growth of 356.6 percent.
