The Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau has released a breakdown of the gross gaming revenue generated by local casinos during the quarter ended June 30, 2016. All gambling venues to be operating in the special administrative region, known to be the only Chinese jurisdiction to have been legally providing casino gambling, generated combined revenue of MOP51.61 billion during the reported period, down 9.2% year-on-year.
The city’s VIP casino segment experienced a 15.7% contraction during this year’s second quarter. Revenue from VIP players amounted to MOP26.6 billion. In comparison, the amount of MOP31.57 billion was posted by the local gambling regulator in the same period of 2015. VIP revenue accounted for 51.5% of the overall figure posted. It stood at 55.5% in the report released for the same period a year ago.
A decrease was also registered in the mass-market sector, although less considerable one. Mass-market gross gaming revenue totaled MOP25.01 billion in the three months ended June 30, down 1.1% from the MOP25.3 billion reported during the same quarter of 2015.
Revenue from mass-market baccarat alone amounted to MOP18.65 billion, up 0.2% year-on-year, and represented 36.1% of the overall revenue figure posted for the months April-June. In comparison, mass-market baccarat accounted for 32.7% of Macau’s gambling revenue generated during the second quarter of 2015.
According to the figures released by the gambling regulator, there were as many as 5,998 live dealer gaming tables at Macau’s casinos during the three months ended June 30, 2016, up 3.2% from the 5,814 tables featured during the same quarter a year ago.
Revenue from slot machines was down 11.3% to MOP2.63 billion for the period between April and June. In comparison, the amount of MOP2.96 billion was generated during the same three months of 2015. There were 13,766 slot machines in Macau’s casinos in the second quarter of the year, down 3% year-on-year from a total of 14,192.
Live multi game revenue increased 11.5% year-on-year from MOP504 million to MOP562 million. Generally speaking, live multi game is an electronic table game that is operated by a live dealer but bets are set electronically.
The city may see further improvement in mass market figures in the months and years to come as officials have introduced a strategy for lessening economy’s high dependence on the VIP gaming sector. The move came as a result from the fact that Macau’s casino market has been contracting for more than two years now, following the launch Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign and the withdrawal of high rollers from the administrative region.
