Macau’s gaming revenue growth rose 5.7 percent to 24.3 billion patacas (US$ 3.03 billion) in February, the slowest pace since January 2017, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) said Thursday.
Reuters said analysts had expected 7 to 12 percent growth. The newswire pointed out that even though revenue growth slowed down in February, it was still the 19th month of consecutive gains.
In January, Macau’s casinos recorded bumper growth of 36.4 percent, the largest year-on-year increase in almost four years.
Month on month, February’s revenue was down 7.5 percent.
The gambling data captured a slow start in the first few days of the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, which started on February 15, with high-rollers staying away from the world’s biggest gaming hub during the busy holiday period, analysts said.
Gaming gross revenue in the first two months rose 19.7 percent year on year to 50.56 billion patacas, according to DICJ statistics.
