Macau’s gross gaming revenue fell 11.3% to MOP$22.12 billion (US$2.76 billion) in January, with the final tally coming in well below original estimates for the month due to the impact of China’s Coronavirus outbreak on visitor numbers.
Macau’s gaming regulator, the DICJ, announced the figures on Saturday amid warnings from some industry experts that February’s GGR could fall by as much as 40%. While that sort of decline would be extreme, Macau is still being heavily impacted by travel restrictions on visitors from mainland China, including reduced border gate opening hours and heavily limited plane, ferry and bus services.
As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, Macau’s Golden Week numbers fell by 78.3% during Chinese New Year with visitation from China down 83.3%.
Notably, January’s GGR of MOP$22.12 billion was lower than every month of 2019 other than September, when gaming revenue bottomed out at MOP$22.08 billion (US$2.73 billion).
Analysts had originally estimated January GGR at between -3% and +2% – before the Coronavirus outbreak changed the landscape.