Operating expenses across the Macau gaming sector grew by 45.4 percent year-on-year in 2021, to just above MOP9.95 billion (US$1.23 billion). Of that aggregate, the costs on complimentary goods and services provided to customers, such as hotel accommodation as well as food and drink, expanded by 59.0 percent, to about MOP7.37 billion.
That is according to the Macau government’s Gaming Sector Survey for 2021, a compendium of data that was released on Tuesday by the city’s Statistics and Census Service.
Total expenditure of the gaming sector rose by 15.2 percent year-on-year to MOP53.48 billion. Aside from operating expenses, the spending category that saw the second-biggest increase was “purchase of goods, commission paid, and customer rebates”. Such expenditure was up 18.1 percent year-on-year, to MOP11.14 billion.
The data showed that employee compensation amounted to MOP20.10 billion, up 2.0 percent year-on-year. That was despite the number of full-time employees declining by 3.1 percent, to 54,839 as of the end of December 2021. Employee compensation accounted for 37.6 percent of the sector’s overall expenditure last year.
The gaming sector’s total non-operating expenses for 2021 were nearly MOP7.78 billion, compared to just under MOP7.33 billion a year earlier, mainly due to an increase of 15.0 percent in interest payments, amounting to about MOP4.46 billion.
During the same period, total receipts of the nine enterprises that were engaged in gaming activities – including non-casino firms such as those involved in lottery and sports betting – amounted to nearly MOP90.81 billion, up 42.0 percent year-on-year. Such increase was “attributable to a rebound in the number of visitor arrivals” to Macau, said the statistics bureau.
Receipts from gaming services grew by 45.1 percent year-on-year, to MOP60.32 billion.
In 2021, the sector’s gross value added – measuring its contribution to the overall economy – edged up by 49.7 percent year-on-year, to MOP62.65 billion. Gross surplus of the sector nearly doubled, to MOP22.13 billion.
