Macau’s casinos generated gross gaming revenue (GGR) of 18.289 billion patacas (US$2.28 billion) last month, a month-on-month decline of 17.4 per cent from the 22.15 billion patacas in August, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) announced today. Y
Year-on-year, GGR in September rose by 6.0 per cent.
Late last month, Macau’s casinos were closed for nearly 1½ days due to Super Typhoon Ragasa. August’s GGR had reached a post-pandemic record. In January 2020, when COVID-19 began to impact Macau’s gaming sector, GGR amounted to 22.126 billion patacas.
Traditionally, August is the main period of the school summer holidays in mainland China and Hong Kong, the primary source markets for Macau’s tourism industry. Last month recorded the gaming industry’s second lowest GGR so far this year, after January’s 18.25 billion patacas.
In the first nine months of the year, GGR rose by 7.1 per cent year-on-year to 181.34 billion patacas.
Macau’s government-concessioned gaming industry is run by six rival integrated resort (IR) operators: Sands, Galaxy, SJM, Melco, Wynn, and MGM. Under their concession agreements with the government, the IR operators are required to strengthen their non-gaming attractions and support the promotion of Macau’s cultural heritage and old-quarter renewal projects. The operators pay 35 per cent of their GGR as direct gaming tax to the government, in addition to a further 5.0 per cent in levies for funding a range of public causes. However, the gaming law, amended in 2022, allows the government to reduce these additional levies (officially termed "contributions") for various reasons, such as when operators expand their foreign client markets or face unforeseen adverse developments affecting their business operations.
In the first half of the year, according to the latest available official gaming statistics, baccarat generated 84.7 per cent of local casinos' GGR across their 16 games of chance. Gaming machines produced 5.7 per cent of GGR in the first six months, while roulette, Europe's classic game of chance, generated a mere 0.47 per cent.
