Last month, September, Macau’s gross gaming income (GGR) fell 13.2% month-after-month to MOP14.94 billion, which is approximately US$1.85 billion, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, the Macau’s local regulator, revealed on October 1.

Macau’s GGR operating rate gradually increased during September:

This data compares with August’s GGR of MOP17.21 billion, which was declared the “best monthly performance” since January 2020, when COVID-19 officially started and when GGR was MOP22.13 billion. Additionally, the September number increased by 404.2% compared to 2022, when travel limitations were still in force. In a related note, investment bank, JP Morgan, said in a recent note, according to GGRAsia: “The casino GGR’s run-rate in Macau was edging up week-on-week in September, following a slow start to the month amidst extreme weather.”

Super typhoon Saola prompted the Macau Meteorological Bureau to uprear its storm signal to Number 10, the biggest warning signal in case of tropical storms, during September 2. The said typhoon additionally caused  an emergency order for all casinos to temporarily close throughout nearly 9 hours as a protective measure and disturbed transportation to and from Macau.

Furthermore, with this figure, Macau’s calculated GGR for the 9 months ending September 30 was nearly MOP128.95 billion, an increase of 305.3% compared to the same period in 2022.

Macau’s mass market to reach pre-COVID levels during October:

With Golden Week running for 8 days this year and not 7 as it was done in previous years, Macau’s mass market may be able to reach pre-COVID levels during the coming month, bringing the total GGR for the third quarter of 2023 back to 94% to 95%, according to the aforementioned JP Morgan. Additionally, it added: “This is the first holiday since the reopening when all the rooms are available, as opposed to limited inventory in 1H23, amid labor shortages, etc., and the number of rooms has actually grown by 15-20 percent compared to pre-COVID levels. Our checks with gaming hosts indicate a pretty upbeat sentiment, with most expecting Golden Week to yield the highest GGR since the reopening, unsurprisingly so.” Also, during the past week, Citigroup analysts added: “The highest post-Covid-19 monthly GGR in October (as high as MOP19.0 billion), driven by the National Day Golden Week. We forecast Macau GGR to average approximately MOP765 million a day during October 1 to 6, going down to a daily average of MOP575 million for the remainder of the month.”

Furthermore, Macau tourism authorities predict that Macau could experience more than 100,000 visitors per day throughout the said holiday. Also, during the first 8 months of the year, the total number of tourists in Macau increased by 363.1% year-on-year to 17.6 million, and is projected that Macau will get 24 million tourists by the end of 2023.