The Macao SAR Government has submitted its 2023 budget to the Legislative Assembly, with the text showing that it expects gross gaming revenue from gaming operators to reach MOP$130 billion (US$16 billion). This is exactly the same amount the government has forecast in each of the past two years.
The budget mentions, “With the resumption of mainland tours to Macau and electronic visa registration, these measures are beneficial to the tourism industry and are expected to increase the number of visitors to Macau. Therefore the estimated GGR for 2023 is MOP$130 billion.
The government has also added a new item called “Transfer of Fiscal Reserves of the Macau Special Administrative Region”, which will allocate MOP$36.5 billion (US$4.5 billion) to cover budgeted expenses in case of revenue shortfall.
In both the 2020 and 2021 budgets, the Macau government predicted that GGR would reach MOP$130 billion in the following year, but the reality was very different from the forecast, with GGR of MOP$86.8 billion (US$10.8 billion) in 2021 and just MOP$35.7 billion (US$4.43 billion) in the first 10 months of 2022.
Although MOP$130 billion seems out of step with reality, some have argued that the Macau government produced the estimate because it will be difficult to meet government expenditure without MOP$130 billion in GGR.
The government expects that tour groups will increase the number of visitors to Macau, and the Macau Tourist Guide Association pointed out in an interview with TDM that tour groups from Guangdong Province are expected to return to Macau in November.
However, a number of new COVID-19 cases have been reported across mainland China in recent days, including in Guangdong province – creating significant uncertainty around travel in general.
