Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong Vai Tac (pictured), said on Wednesday that the government is maintaining its forecast for the city’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) at MOP200 billion (US$25 billion) for 2016. Mr Leong said the decline in GGR in the first five months of the year was “within the government’s expectations”.
Accumulated casino GGR in the five months to May 31 totalled MOP91.91 billion, down 11.9 percent from the prior-year period, showed the latest data from Macau’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. Casino revenue declined by 9.6 percent year-on-year in May, marking 24 consecutive months of declines when measured in year-on-year terms.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event on Wednesday, Mr Leong noted that the rate of decline of casino GGR has been narrowing as the year progresses.
The official additionally said that June is usually a softer month in terms of GGR compared to May. He did not provide a forecast for the month of June.
Casino GGR for June is currently tracking at a year-on-year decline of between 2 percent and 9 percent, suggested two brokerages on Monday.
The Macau government in November forecast GGR to come in at MOP200 billion in 2016, an average of MOP16.6 billion per month. That would represent a decline of 13.4 percent compared to the MOP230.84 billion in casino GGR recorded for the whole of 2015.
