The latest monthly data released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau of Macau has revealed that the island territory’s gaming revenue for the month of May jumped by 492% year-on-year.
The data shows that gaming revenue beat analysts’ prediction of a 467% jump as Macau’s casinos generated 10.4B Patacas ($1.3B) thanks to a surge in tourists arriving from China during the Golden Week holiday. This marked a 24% increase on the month of April but was still 60% lower than May 2019’s figure of 25.9B Patacas ($3.2B).
Macau’s tourism trade enjoyed a much-needed spike in arrivals with as many as 167,000 visitors arriving on the island for the five-day Golden Week holiday. The average daily visitor arrival jumped by 158% in comparison to the Spring Festival during February. This resulted in an overall 25% increase in arrivals from April. However, the total number of visitors was only 21% of the number that arrived in May 2019 before the pandemic hit. Of the visitors who arrived in Macau during May, 93% were from China.
Gaming revenue outside of Golden Week dropped to just 250M Patacas per day which was 10% lower than in April.
The island territory has ramped up efforts to attract more tourists to its casinos in recent months with a particular focus on visitors from mainland China as both regions have largely contained the virus to date. But new cases of Covid-19 in China has seen uncertainty grow about the industry’s summer revenue.
The latest outbreaks in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea will also reduce the predicted tourism numbers a great deal with some experts worrying that May could have been the best month Macau’s casino industry will see for the next 6 months.
Based in London, Natasha is a former sports journalist with experience working for some of the biggest athletes & brands in the world of sports and iGaming.