Macau’s gross gaming revenue declined by 94.5% year-on-year to MOP$1.34 billion in July as revenues show some improvement following the easing of border restrictions with Guangdong Province mid-month.
The figures, published by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, come after the Macau SAR suffered year-on-year declines of 96.8%, 93.2% and 97.0% in April, May and June respectively, with June revenue totaling just MOP$716 million.
Having suffered through near zero visitation since Guangdong introduced mandatory 14-day quarantine for all arrivals from Macau on 27 March, those restrictions were slightly eased from 15 July. It has been speculated that the Individual Visit Scheme, which accounted for 46.8% of all mainland Chinese visitors to Macau last year, may be reinstated relatively soon. There is widespread agreement amongst experts that this is a necessary step for significant normalization of Macau GGR.
For the first seven months of 2020, Macau’s GGR is down 79.8% year-on-year to MOP$35 billion compared with MOP$174 billion over the same period in 2019.