Macau casinos maintained their years-delayed COVID-19 recovery in March as gaming win continued to inch closer to 2019 levels.
Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau reports that the six casino operators in the Chinese enclave combined to win MOP19.65 billion (US$2.45 billion) from gamblers last month. That marked a 0.8% year-over-year improvement and pushed gross gaming revenue (GGR) year-to-date to 0.6% higher than the same three-month period in 2024.
March represented about 76% of the MOP25.84 billion that the same six casinos won in pre-pandemic March 2019. Last month was the best March since the coronavirus emerged in China six years ago.
March was 0.4% lower than February when GGR totaled $2.46 billion. February, though having three fewer calendar days than March, benefitted from China’s Lunar New Year, the national holiday that affords most mainlanders paid time off.
Gaming analysts focused on Macau, the only place under Chinese control where slot machines and table games are allowed, expected a slow start to 2025. Permission to offer gaming was grandfathered into the Special Administrative Region after Portugal handed it back to China around the turn of the century. Looking ahead, analysts predict a mounting recovery.
