Macao’s casino operators closed December with gross gaming revenue (GGR) of 18.6 billion patacas, culminating in an annual total of 183.1 billion patacas – a 333.8 percent surge from the previous year, according to figures released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
This performance exceeds the government’s annual target of 130 billion patacas – a figure analysts had already anticipated to rise above 180 billion – and triggers a stipulation in the 10-year gaming concession signed by the city’s six gaming operators in December 2022.
[See more: How would you spend a trillion patacas? (That’s US$124 billion)]
This stipulation mandates that if Macao’s annual GGR hits 180 billion patacas at least once in the initial five years, operators must increase their non-gaming investments by 20 percent, amounting to an additional 130 billion patacas in non-gaming spending.
While December’s GGR marked a 15.7 percent rise from 16 billion patacas from November, it still fell short of October’s peak, which was the year’s highest at 19.5 billion patacas.
For context, the pre-pandemic GGR in 2019 was 292.5 billion patacas, which places the 2023 figure at 62.6 percent of the pre-pandemic level.
