Macau casinos posted a gross gaming revenue (GGR) of $2.73 billion for July, the best monthly total recorded in the special administrative region (SAR) in over five years.
The figures released by the city’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau showed a 19% increase on those from July last year and a 5% mark-up on June’s $2.6 billion.
Macau has now posted six consecutive months of GGR growth year-over-year with casinos winning around $17.44 billion for the year to date, a 6.5% increase on the same period last year.
Although these are encouraging signs, there is still a long way to go to return to the successes of the pre-Covid era.
The January to July total is 19% below the $21.5 billion generated during the equivalent period in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.
Gambling In Macau
Macau is the only territory under Chinese control where slot machines and gaming tables are legal, with six operators active in the region: Sands China, Wynn Macau, Galaxy Entertainment, MGM China, Melco Resorts and SJM Holdings.
To protect the interests of its land-based casinos, all online betting for horse racing was administered by the Macau Jockey Club, but that ceased operating on April 1, 2024, after horse racing itself was banned from the territory.
The SAR’s sole sports betting operator, Macau Slot, recently had its licence extended to June 2026, subject to an agreement to reduce non-professional foreign staff among its workforce.
There is presently no legal framework in place that would allow any other prospective sports betting sites to open in Macau but equally no specific laws that prevents residents looking to offshore sportsbooks and online casinos.
Leading Recovery To Pre-Covid Levels
The advent of the coronavirus crisis had a devastating affect on Macau’s gaming industry, with China general secretary Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy putting an end to international foot traffic.
The number of monthly visitors fell from around three million before the pandemic to fewer than 1 million in 2021.
The region itself remained relatively functional, not imposing its first lockdown until July 2022, at which point the casinos had to close for a short period.
Once restrictions were lifted, the six gaming operators in Macau realised that they would have to extend the region’s appeal to more than the VIP market that had served them well pre-Covid.
That also fitted in with the local government’s ambition to lessen the grip that gaming revenues had on local finances.
From January to July 2024, 84% of Macau’s total government revenue came from gaming taxes.
Moving forward the government revealed a strategy to reduce that by half and earn 60% of gross domestic product from non-gaming activities.
The resort has benefitted from the casino companies combining to make huge investments into creating general attractions of more common interest outside of the gaming world.
The VIP market has still been catered for, with the launch of new premium tables and high-profile entertainment, with the likes of Hong Kong singers Sandy Lam, Aaron Kwok and Eason Chan performing at multiple shows between now and September.
The Macau Statistics and Census Service revealed that for the first six months of 2025 the region received just over 19.2 million visitors, an increase of 15% on the same period last year and equivalent to around 95% of 2019’s pre-Covid figure.
That isn’t yet translating itself directly to an increase in gaming revenue for the six operators.
The $17.44 billion for GGR in the first seven months of 2025 is $4.09 billion short of the $21.53 billion earned in the same period in 2019.
Jim Munro is a betting industry and gambling expert who has been a national newspaper journalist for over 30 years, predominantly at The Sunday Times and The Sun, where he wrote a weekly soccer betting column. Jim also worked on the launch of Virgin Bet with Gamesys and was subsequently head of editorial at LiveScore, the sports media and betting group.
