Macao’s casino operators generated gross gaming revenue (GGR) of 19.5 billion patacas in October, according to figures from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
The sum, a post-pandemic high, represents a rise of just over 26 percent from the 14.94 billion patacas generated in the previous month and reverses a disappointing performance that had been attributed to September’s severe weather.
The latest GGR figure also reflects the windfall during the so-called “golden week” holiday following National Day on 1 October. The 8-day holiday period alone brought in an estimated $6.65 billion patacas in GGR, JP Morgan analysts say – roughly 80 percent of the comparable figure for the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
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For comparison, total GGR for October 2019 was 26.4 billion patacas. Monthly GGR figures mostly exceeded 20 billion patacas from 2017 until the onset of Covid-19 at the start of 2020.
Accumulated GGR so far in 2023 meanwhile stands at 148.4 billion patacas, compared to 246.7 billion patacas at the same period of 2019.
The government set a now exceeded GGR target of 130 billion patacas for the year but analysts are generally predicting an annual total of 180 billion patacas or more.
