The 41 casinos in Macau reportedly saw the share of aggregated third-quarter gross gaming revenues they amassed from VIP baccarat players decrease by some 16.4% year-on-year to just over $737.7 million.

According to a report from Inside Asian Gaming citing official information from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau regulator, this drop meant that only around 31.5% of the city’s aggregated gross gaming revenues for the three months to the end of September had come from high-rollers at the baccarat tables. The source detailed that this fall was largely blamed on a range of new cross-border travel restrictions recently put in place to help counter the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Coronavirus consequences:

Macau is home to a slew of prestigious casino resorts including SJM Holdings Limited’s iconic Casino Grand Lisboa venue and the 3,000-room The Venetian Macao facility from the Sands China Limited subsidiary of American giant Las Vegas Sands Corporation. However, the former Portuguese enclave has reportedly been slow to recover from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and recently saw its aggregated third-quarter gross gaming revenues decline 26.1% quarter-on-quarter to just slightly beyond $2.3 billion.

Baccarat bubble:

Inside Asian Gaming reported that the third quarter had additionally seen the amount of cash brought in by the game of baccarat drop by 29.9% quarter-on-quarter and 80.8% year-on-year to roughly $744.1 million. It moreover explained that this segment had consequently accounted for just 33.7% of all casino table gaming revenues during the three-month period as well as a mere 31.5% of aggregated gambling receipts, which represented a crash of 13.8% versus the same period in 2020 and less than half of the 73% share it enjoyed back in 2011.

Mass-market malaise:

By comparison and the source reported that takings from mass-market baccarat had accounted for an impressive 66.3% of Macau’s aggregated third-quarter casino table gaming revenues alongside 55.8% of its associated gambling receipts. Nevertheless, attendant quarterly mass-market earnings, which included slot takings, purportedly plummeted by 56.4% quarter-on-quarter and 67.8% when compared with the same period in 2019 to about $1.3 billion.

Tourist trouble:

The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau regulator reportedly earlier disclosed that the enclave’s aggregated gross gaming revenues for September had faded by 43.7% when compared with the $1.3 billion high seen in May to stand at just $733 million. The regulator purportedly furthermore divulged that these results were heavily impacted by the Chinese government’s decision to reintroduce a two-week quarantine requirement after Macau had experienced a small outbreak of the ‘delta variant’ of coronavirus.