Macau sets new casino income record with US$45b last year
Print Edition
Macau has again smashed its annual record for casino earnings as revenues last year hit a staggering US$45 billion, further cementing its position as the world’s biggest gambling market.
Macau’s nearly three dozen casinos raked in 33.5 billion patacas (US$4.2 billion) in December, according to data released yesterday by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, the gambling regulator. That brought revenue for last year to 360.8 billion patacas (US$45 billion), up 18.6 percent from 2012.
Analyst Grant Govertsen of Union Gaming Research estimated that Macau’s take would be more than seven times the amount earned on the Las Vegas Strip.
Macau’s once-lethargic casino market has thrived since the government ended a gambling monopoly a decade ago and let in foreign players such as Las Vegas Sands Corp and Wynn Resorts Ltd.
The competition has transformed the city into a gambling powerhouse, with glitzy new casino resorts centered on the Cotai Strip, marketed as Asia’s version of the Las Vegas Strip.
All six casino operators in Macau, an hour by high-speed ferry from Hong Kong, are pouring billions of dollars into new megaprojects in the strip in a fresh round of expansion.
Macau’s casino revenues are the envy of other markets around Asia, which have been looking at ways to duplicate its success.
Increasing numbers of wealthy high-rolling visitors from the Chinese mainland have helped power Macau’s rise as a casino hub.
Revenue has already overtaken the entire market in the US, where a year ago some 12,000 US casinos raked in US$37.3 billion, according to figures from the American Gaming Association. In the same period, Macau, which has 35 casinos and a population of about 560,000, earned US$38 billion, according to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
Macau’s lead is certain to widen as growth in major markets like the Las Vegas Strip has largely hit a plateau.
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