“Revenues at the world’s largest gambling hub, Macau’s casinos, grew by almost a quarter in 2024, but are still below pre-Covid-19 levels, underscoring the need for the city to diversify.”, — write: epravda.com.ua
Revenues at the world’s largest gambling hub, Macau’s casinos, grew by almost a quarter in 2024, but are still below pre-Covid-19 levels, underscoring the need for the city to diversify. This is reported by Reuters. Revenue from Macau’s gaming business reached 226.8 billion patacas ($28.35 billion) last year, up 23.9 percent from 2023, according to data released Wednesday by the Gambling Inspection and Coordination Bureau. That beat the government’s estimate of 216 billion patacas, but fell short of the 292.5 billion patacas recorded in 2019.Advertisement: Notably, revenues fell 2.0% in December, the only month in 2024 to record a decline on an annual basis. The drop coincided with heightened security around Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to mark a quarter century of Beijing’s rule. Macau returned to Chinese rule on December 20, 1999, and is governed under the same “one country, two systems” system as neighboring Hong Kong. During his visit, Xi called on Macau to have the “courage” to diversify its economy by creating new industries and better linking with the mainland’s national development strategies.Advertisement: Macau, a special administrative region of China, is the only place in the country where gambling is legal. Its economy is largely dependent on casinos, which generate about 80% of tax revenue. But China’s long-running anti-corruption campaign has squeezed gambling revenues in the VIP sector, which have fallen further during the pandemic years, when strict travel restrictions have sharply reduced the number of tourists from the mainland.