GAMBLING INSIDER

Total gross revenue for Macau casinos in November marks the second month out of three where the total has been at its lowest point in five years.

A total of 16.43bn patacas was generated for the month, which is down 32% year-on-year and is the lowest amount to have been reported by the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) this year.

It is also the lowest monthly sum since September 2010’s 15.3bn patacas and is lower than September 2015’s 17.13bn patacas, which at the time was itself the smallest figure reported since the corresponding month five years earlier.

The number of consecutive year-on-year monthly declines in gross casino revenue for the former Portuguese colony has now stretched to 18, and the year-to-date accumulated gross revenue of 212.5bn patacas is down 35%.

Last year’s total of 351.52bn patacas represented a decrease of 3% and marked the first annual decline in the market since records began, with the first year on record being 2002 after the market was opened up to foreign operators in 2001.

The decline has been put down to a crackdown on corruption and a decline in the Macau economy.

Macau’s GDP has descended by over 20% in all of the first three quarters this year.

Manuel Joaquim das Neves stepped down from the position as director of the DICJ at the end of the November, a position he had held since 1997.