Macau’s casinos contributed MOP41.85bn ($5.22bn) to the local economy in 2020, an 80% year-on-year decline.
The latest figure, from the Statistics and Census Service, shows that border closures and land-based restrictions had a damaging impact on the region’s casinos, both of which are a direct result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The year also saw gross surplus of the sector fall by 88% to MOP22.13bn. A measure of how effectively receipts are converted into surplus, Gross Surplus Ratio fell by 26.1 percentage points to 36.1.
Total expenditure of the gaming sector was MOP46.42bn, a 61% decrease from the prior-year period. This included an 83% decline in expenditure on the purchase of goods, commission paid and customer rebates to MOP9.43bn.
Operating expenses meanwhile declined by 69% to MOP9.95bn, including a 75% fall in the amount spent on complementary goods and services provided to customers to MOP4.64bn.
Despite the overall decline, the gaming sector remains the Macau Government’s primary source of revenue, with MOP29.81bn in tax collected for 2020, comprising over 70% of all tax revenue collected in the region.
The figures come after Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong suggested Macau’s income from GGR for 2021 may fall below the predicted MOP130bn.
