Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau released information about the gambling revenue generated by the city’s six casino operators in June. It dropped 36.2% year-on-year to MOP17.4 billion compared to the MOP27.22 billion reported in June 2014.
Revenue at Asia’s most popular gaming destination fell for a thirteenth consecutive month. In other words, May 2014 was the last month when Macau’s casinos posted a rise in gaming revenue. Back then, it increased 9.3% to a little more than MOP32.35 billion.
It is also interesting to note that revenue has not fallen below MOP18 billion since November 2010, when the city’s gambling venues collected a total of MOP17.5 billion.
The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau also announced that gaming revenue for the first six months of the year amounted to MOP121.65 billion, down 37% as compared to the MOP193.09 billion generated for the same period a year ago.
Although a significant one, the monthly decline did not meet analysts’ expectations of a 38% to 40% drop.
As mentioned above, revenue at the popular gambling hub has been falling for thirteen months now. One of the main reasons for this is the anti-corruption campaign that President Xi Jinping has been carrying out in Mainland China. Due to it, more and more Chinese high rollers have been deterring themselves from traveling to the administrative region, known to be the only place in China where casino gambling is permitted.
Analysts believe that the full smoking ban, which is to be imposed anytime soon, would result in further declines in the city’s casino revenue.
However, Macau’s gambling operators might be seeing light at the end of the tunnel, as the city government has just announced that it would reverse the current transit visa policy, which was tightened this time last year. Back then, officials suspected that junket operators and certain high rollers used it so as to be able to enter Macau multiple times.
As of today, Chinese citizens would be allowed to travel to the city more frequently and to stay there for as long as a week. Under the last year’s transit visa policy, Mainland China high rollers were allowed to stay in the city for no more than 5 days. Furthermore, they were allowed to visit Macau once in two months. Under the latest introduced regulation they would be granted second entry within 30 days.
