Inside Asian Gaming

IAG AUG 2022年8月 亞博匯 32 2014 TO 2019 The next six years heralded the first headwinds and were more nuanced than the rampant growth of the preceding decade. The year 2014 saw the first reduction in GGR for Macau’s liberalized industry. Admittedly it was only a 2.5% fall, but still represented a shock after a decade-long unbroken streak of annual growth, with year-on- year growth rates ranging from “only” 9% (in 2009 post-GFC) to 58% (in 2010, making up for the 2009 “stall”). Initially, and laughably, the 2014 hiccup was blamed on the FIFA World Cup in Brazil that year, the postulation being that gamblers had stayed home to bet on the quadrennial global football festival. That theory was thoroughly discredited in 2015 COVER STORY when the so-called “crackdown on corruption” hit Macau, causing a 34% year-on-year collapse of GGR. The crackdown had begun a couple of years earlier but took a while to gain momentum and bite Macau. The VIP sector was hit particularly hard. But by 2018 the industry had weathered the storm, to see GGR claw back to MOP$303