Bloomberg and staff reporter
Macau expects income from gaming revenue to slip 0.5 percent to patacas 49.76 billion (HK$48.31 billion) this year after the annual gaming revenue went up 44 percent to patacas 86.8 billion in 2021.
The 2021 annual figure was 70 percent down from the prepandemic level of patacas 292.45 billion in 2019.
Gross gaming revenue jumped 1.8 percent to patacas 7.96 billion year on year in December, according to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, Bloomberg reported. That beat the median analystestimatefor a 5.5 percent year-on-year decline.
In the annual budget, the government estimated the tax on commission from casino junkets to slide nearly 80 percent to patacas 43 million in 2022 with the arrest in December of Alvin Chau Cheok-wa, founder of the city’s biggest junket operator, Suncity Group. That upended the enclave’s roughly US$3 billion (HK$23.4 billion) VIP sector.
The sector accounted for about one-third of the city’s overall gaming revenue, driven mainly by junkets that bring in high-rolling gamblers.
Some casinos have quickly ended their partnership with junkets and Suncity has ceased its VIP operations in the city.
The month also saw Macau confirming two imported cases of Omicron, leaving the city at risk of a border shutdown with the mainland, its largest source of visitors. China’s zero tolerance for Covid cases had seen authorities tighten travel rules, or temporarily suspend quarantine-free travel, with Macau earlier this year.
The city has yet to allow quarantine-free travel with Hong Kong, the second-largest contributor of tourists, and remains shut to the rest of the world.
Macau authorities last month released results of a public consultation on how local gaming laws should be amended, easing earlier concerns that the government may take drastic steps to tighten the grip over the casino industry.
Most respondents are in favor of maintaining six casino operators, increasing local ownership and strengthening government supervision, according to the results. Participants are less supportive of a government proposal to control dividend distribution.
Amending the law is a key step to set the legal ground for distributing new casino licenses as the current ones are due to expire by June.