Macau's 30 casino generated gross gaming revenue (GGR) of 19.503 billion patacas, the highest post-pandemic figure, according to data released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) today.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case on January 22, 2020. According to DICJ statistics, GGR stood at 22.1 billion patacas in January 2020. In February 2020, the first full month affected by the pandemic, GGR fell to a mere 3.1 billion patacas. The pandemic severely affected Macau's tourism, gaming, retail and other economic sectors for nearly three years, until late 2022.
Previously, the best post-pandemic GGR was recorded in October last year, when it reached 19.501 billion patacas.
Year on year, last month's GGR rose 53.1 percent. Month on month, GGR was up by 5.5 percent.
In the first quarter, GGR reached 57.3 billion patacas, a year-on-year growth of 65.5 percent.
Macau's 30 casinos are owned by six rival operators - SJM (13), Sands (5), Galaxy (4), Melco (4), MGM (2), and Wynn (2).
The six operators pay 35 percent of their GGR as direct gaming tax to the government, as well as another 5 percent as levies (called "contributions" in the local legal parlance) for a range of public facilities and services such as education, tourism promotion, social welfare and urban development.
Traditionally, baccarat is the local gaming industry's number-one money spinner. Last year, according to the latest available DICJ statistics, baccarat generated 85 percent of Macau's GGR. Slot machines and the traditional game of dice officially known as "cussec" and informally as "big and small" generated 5.9 percent and 3.5 percent of Macau's GGR in 2023, respectively. The remaining GGR came from about a dozen other games of chance such as live multi gaming, black jack and roulette.
