Macau's gross gaming revenue (GGR) fell 94.5 percent year-on-year to 1.33 billion patacas (US$167 million) in August, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) announced today.
Month-to-month, casino receipts were down 1.04 percent.
In the first eight months of the year, the sector's revenues generated by games of chance fell 81.6 percent year-on-year to 36.39 billion patacas.
August recorded the industry's third lowest takings this year, after April (754 million patacas) and June (716 million patacas).
Macau's gross gaming revenue began to decline drastically in February. The first COVID-19 case was recorded in the special administrative region on January 22. A total of 46 cases have been recorded since then, none of them fatal. All the patients have been cured and discharged from hospital. Unlike Hong Kong, Macau has not recorded a community outbreak of the contagious disease.
Due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Macau has imposed strict entry curbs and quarantine regulations since early this year. However, the entry curbs on mainland Chinese visitors have been gradually relaxed since last month and are slated to be further eased late this month.
Foreign nationals without a residency permit in Macau have been barred from entering Macau since early this year. Due to Macau's strict adherence to the "One China" policy, there have been special entry regulations for compatriots from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Macau's six gaming operators (three concessionaires and three subconcessionaires) own 41 casinos.
At the end of June, the gaming sector had 57,459 full-time employees, including 25,344 dealers (croupiers), according to the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC). The sector employed about 14 percent of Macau's total workforce of 406,500 in the May-July employment sector survey period, DSEC data shows.
