October’s figure of MOP$7.27bn ($914m) was revealed by Macau’s government on Sunday, with gaming revenue now posting a drop of more than 90% over the last six months. 

The decline comes despite China reinstating the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) for mainland visitors to Macau on September 23. 

Residents of Zhuhai and Guangdong Province were allowed to enter the region on 12 August and 26 August respectively, but it is visitors from mainland China who have the greatest impact on Macau revenue. 

IVS accounted for almost 50% of the 27.9 million visitors from mainland China to Macau in 2019. 

But visitation numbers to the region have declined dramatically in recent months, both due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and also because of fears that China will soon introduce stricter measures with regards to offshore gambling. 

Macau’s GGR is now down 81% year-on-year for the first ten months of 2020. The current figure of MOP$45.9bn represents a huge fall from the MOP$246.7bn reported over the same period in 2019.