Macau casino market has suffered a record drop in year-on-year monthly revenue for the third time in the space of six months.

The figures posted for February are a 48.6% slump to $2.54bn (19.54bn patacas) from the same month in 2014, marking the ninth consecutive month that the year-on-year monthly total has decreased.

Macau’s latest monthly fall has broken the previous year-on-year monthly decline of 30.4% to $2.91bn (23.29bn patacas) in December last year, which itself surpassed the 23.2% figure posted in October.

January saw the market’s year-on-year monthly revenue decline cut to 17.4%.

Accumulated gross revenue for the year so far stands at $5.41bn (43.29bn patacas), a 35.1% decrease from the $8.35bn (66.74bn patacas) that had been generated at the same stage last year.

Last year saw Macau record its first annual fall in revenue since records began in 2002, with the yearly total of $44bn (351.5bn patacas) being a 2.6% decline from the 2013 total of $45.2bn.

Until last year, 11 consecutive years of revenue increases from 2002 were reported, following the law being changed to open up the market to foreign operators in 2001, bringing an end to SJM Holdings’ monopoly.