The gambling province of Macau has reported its gaming revenue for September, with September recording a 404% increase on September 2022.
The sum, which came in at MOP 14.9bn ($1.84bn), was significantly higher than the MOP 2.96bn it recorded for the same period last year.
It was down on August, although its business in September was affected by a large storm on September 1 – when the Macau Government ordered the temporary closure of six casinos, which opened again the next day.
Overall, Macau is experiencing huge growth since the Chinese Government declared the end of its zero-Covid policy, following mass protests seen in the country – which is rare. For the year so far, the region has seen 305% growth with a cumulative income of MOP 128.9bn – significantly up on the MOP 31.8bn it recorded as of September 2022.
Although these figures are still below the totals that it saw in September 2019, when it posted a sum of MOP 22.1bn, the rises seen in 2023 are enough to see that Macau has gotten to its feet quite quickly after China ended its damaging policy.
When speaking to Gambling Insider in a recent GI Huddle, MGM China’s President & COO Hubert Wang stated that the recovery seen is better when looking deeper into the figures. This is due to the fact that much of Macau’s VIP business has gone elsewhere, mainly to places such as Singapore and Manila; however, this means that resort casinos are no longer spending as much to get VIP guests to gamble on their floors.
He also stated that the majority of Macau’s general mass market business has recovered, which is more profitable than the VIP business – and that Macau doesn’t necessarily need to recover to pre-pandemic levels as a result.
