Macau casinos fall agonisingly short of ending decline – future could be brighter
The run of year-on-year monthly gross revenue declines for the Macau casino market has come mightily close to ending.
February’s total of 19.52bn patacas (£1.75bn) was narrowly down from February 2015’s 19.54bn patacas and was the closest to being a year-on-year increase in the run of 21 consecutive months of downturns.
The last increase was reported for May 2014 and the smallest decrease to have been published since then and before now was July 2014’s 3.6% drop to 28.42bn patacas
While February’s figure marks another year-on-year fall, the sum is up month-on-month from January’s 18.67bn patacas.
The year-to-date total gross revenue of 38.2bn patacas is again only slightly down, as the first two months of last year generated 43.3bn patacas.
If the trend of the last three months continues, then the downturn may finally be at an end when March’s total is confirmed, as three month-on-month increases have been achieved in that time, following November’s 16.43bn patacas, the lowest total to have been reported since September 2010.
March was the second-strongest month of last year for the former Portuguese colony’s six casino operators, generating 21.49bn patacas, so there is every possibility that the next outcome could also near-enough flat-line once again.
The decline has been put down to various factors, including increased regulation against corruption and a struggling Macau economy, with the region’s GDP falling by over 20% in all of the first three quarters last year.
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