Macau ends 2015 with downturn of over 30%

inevitable annual decrease in gross revenue for the Macau casino market for 2015 concluded at 34% to 230.84bn patacas ($28.91bn).

A total of 19 consecutive months of year-on-year decline have been reported by the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, and last year’s results followed an annual drop of 3% to 351.52bn patacas for 2014, the first annual fall to have been reported since the market opened up to foreign operators in 2001.

December’s gross revenue of 18.34bn patacas represented a 21% year-on-year drop.

That figure showed a month-on-month improvement from November’s 16.43bn patacas, which was the lowest to have been published since September 2010's 15.3bn patacas.

November marked the second month out of three where the lowest total in five years was recorded, after September’s sum of 17.13bn patacas was at that time the lowest reported since the corresponding month five years earlier.

Anti-corruption measures deployed by the Chinese government, a downturn in tourism and problems with Macau’s economy have all been listed as potential reasons for the descent.

Macau’s GDP weakened by 25% for the first three quarters of 2015, according to the Statistics and Census Service, which has also noted that visitor arrivals in the former Portuguese colony fell 3% to 25.5 million for the year to the end of October 2015.