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Macau's total casino gaming revenue (GGR) is expected to fall by 12% to 13% in September, public broadcaster TDM reported on Tuesday, U.N. Economy and Finance Minister Francis Tambac said.
If Tam's year-on-year forecast is correct, it will be the fourth straight month that the GGR has fallen year-on-year. It will be the most sustained decline since the period between December 2008 and June 2009, shortly after the global financial crisis.
Several game analysts gave similar estimates to Tom's. 카지노사이트 모음
A 13% drop in the GGR also means Macau's casino industry struggles are worse than expected. That's the sharpest drop since the start of the recession: Data from Macau gaming regulators showed the GGR was down 3.7% in June from a year earlier, down 3.6% in July and down 6.1% in August.
Casino revenues reached 29 billion MOPs ($3.6 billion) in September 2013.
Tam told reporters he does not expect GGR growth to be negative for the full year. Instead, he expected gaming revenue to remain similar to the $36.7 billion MOP posted in 2013.
The Macau official also pointed out several positive trends. He emphasized that Macau welcomed more than 3 million tourists, a new monthly record, in August. In his opinion, the increase in the number of tourists despite the decrease in the GGR showed that the government's strategy to diversify Macau's tourism services, in addition to games, is being successfully demonstrated.
Tam also added that the slowdown in the urban gaming industry has proved that the cap on live dealer gaming tables implemented by the government since 2013 is appropriate and protects the sector's sound development.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2012, Macau's government imposed a cap that capped the growth of live dealer tables at an annual average of 3% by the end of 2022, based on 5,485 tables recorded by gaming regulators. The policy coincides with a large expansion of Kotai's casino resorts, which include billions of dollars in investment. Seven new properties are set to open between 2015 and 2018.
Macau's gaming regulator is only expected to announce its September GGR results on Oct. 6, after the holiday period, which began on Wednesday to mark National Day, the founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China, on Oct. 1, 1949.