Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau has reported gross gaming revenue of MOP$7.31 billion (US$914.5 million) at Macau’s casinos in February, down 8.9% on January GGR and 71.2% lower than February 2019, a year before the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which produced GGR of MOP$25.37 billion (US$3.14 billion).
It is, however, 135.6% higher than February 2020, when the onset of the pandemic saw Macau shutter all casinos for 15 days and GGR subsequently plummet to MOP$3.10 billion.
Due to the shorter month, February GGR was also higher than January on a daily basis, with Average Daily Revenue of MOP$261 million versus just under MOP$259 million per day in January.
The overall decline versus January GGR comes on the back of a substantially weaker Chinese New Year holiday period than had been previously anticipated after a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 cases in parts of mainland China saw authorities issue stay in place orders. Visitation to Macau declined 65.3% during the CNY Golden Week to just 90,615, down from 261,069 in 2020 (during the early days of COVID-19) and 1.21 million in 2019.
Macau’s casinos had recorded their best result in 12 months in January, with GGR of MOP$8.02 billion (US$1.0 billion) representing a 2.6% increase over December.
For the first two months of 2021 combined, Macau’s GGR stands at MOP$15.34 billion (US$1.92 billion), down 39.2% year-on-year.
Macau’s total GGR for 2020 was MOP$60.44 billion (US$7.56 billion), down 79.3% year-on-year.
