Macau’s accumulated casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the full year of 2015 fell 34.3 percent compared to 2014, according to data released on Friday by the city’s regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
It meant consecutive years of annual GGR decline for Macau: in 2014, GGR had fallen 2.6 percent.
The city’s accumulated GGR for the 12 months of the year 2015 stood at MOP230.84 billion (US$28.9 billion), compared to MOP351.5 billion in 2014. That was the lowest annual GGR tally for Macau since 2010, when the city’s casinos recorded a total of MOP188.3 billion in gaming revenue.
Macau’s GGR for December fell by 21.2 percent year-on-year to approximately MOP18.34 billion. As had been widely predicted by investment analysts, it was the 19th straight month of GGR retreat measured year-on-year.
However, December’s monthly GGR decline as measured in year-on-year terms was the smallest since January.
Macau posted a year-on-year casino GGR decline of 17.4 percent in January. Since then, monthly GGR had dropped by percentages ranging from 28.4 percent (October) to 48.6 percent (February) measured in year-on-year terms.
According to investment analysts, the moderation in December of year-on-year decline in GGR was assisted by easier year-on-year comparisons. Macau’s casino industry has been posting monthly year-on-year declines since June 2014. But it was in December 2014 that the first decrease above 25 percent – amounting to a 30.4 percent decline – was recorded. December was also the month in 2014 with the lowest GGR tally – MOP23.3 billion.
