Macau is China’s answer to Las Vegas. But the former Portuguese colony has long surpassed the City of Lights as the world’s casino capital, with revenue from gambling receipts exceeding the. Gross revenue from gambling fell 96.8% year over year to 754M patacas, or $95 million, in April, Macau's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said, the worst month on record, surpassing the.

• Macau China Gambling
• Macau China Gambling Revenues
• Macau Gambling Revenue
• Macau Casino Revenue
• Macau Gaming Revenue

Macau’s gambling industry reported its best revenue in four years in 2018 after Beijing’s crackdown on corruption and luxury spending saw spending plunge by over a third, government data show.

The special administrative region’s gaming industry continued its recovery, with gross revenue in the sector reaching 303 billion patacas ($38 billion), a 14% increase year-on-year, according to figures from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, Macau’s gambling watchdog.

Macau China Gambling

Four years after the Chinese government started the crackdown, Macau’s annual gambling revenue has once again surpassed 300 billion patacas, marking the second straight year of gross gaming revenue growth. It is still below 2013’s revenue of 361 billion patacas.

In 2014, 2015 and 2016, revenue declined 2.6%, 34.3% and 3.3%, respectively. The industry’s revenue grew 19% in 2017.

Macau’s casino industry struggled after China introduced capital restrictions and carried out measures to combat corruption. The typhoon in September also led casinos to temporarily close (link in Chinese).

The sector’s performance in December also went beyond analysts’ expectation. In the month, gross gaming revenue rose to about 26.5 billion patacas, a 17% climb year-on-year.

“Macau December GGR (gross gaming revenue) came in stronger than expected… above Bloomberg consensus of (an increase of) 11 percent and above our estimate of (an increase of) 12 percent to 15 percent,” said analysts from brokerage firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC in a research note on Tuesday.

Analysts said that the October opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge likely did little to boost revenue. The number of people visiting Macau rose 15.3% year-on-year in November, which is being attributed to the bridge, according to a Union Gaming Securities Asia Ltd. research memo.

However “the surge in visitation is not translating to casino foot traffic,” said Union Gaming analysts. “Rather, we’re seeing a dynamic where tour groups are utilizing the bridge instead of the ferry service to shuttle people between Zhuhai and Hong Kong by way of Macau.”

The Union Gaming analysts said they expect to see strong growth continue into the coming year.

Macau China Gambling Revenues

Morgan Stanley analysts said in a report that gaming stocks are likely to do well in the coming years, even if the sector faces disruption from higher taxes or greater competition. The government won’t announce an updated policy on gaming license renewals until after Macau’s new chief executive is appointed in December, the Morgan Stanley report said.

Macau’s economy relies heavily on the gaming industry, benefitting from visitors from the Chinese mainland, where the only form of legal gambling is state-backed lotteries. In 2013, the gaming industry peaked at over 60% of local gross domestic product (GDP), according to a report published by Tianjin University.

“Although Macau’s gaming industry entered a period of decline thereafter, its share of GDP was still as high as 47% in 2016,” said the authors of the report, adding that Macau’s lack of a broad-based economic structure has raised concerns over the sustainability of local economy.

Zhao Runhua also contributed to this report.

Contact reporter Timmy Shen (hongmingshen@caixin.com)

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The gambling industry is one of the largest financial generators in the world today.

The online gambling industry is proliferating, but it is still not able to offer the experience of going to a land-based casino.

Therefore, a lot of people still enjoy visiting brick and mortar gambling venues, and some of them even travel across the world to do so.

The so-called “gambling cities” generate billions of dollars every year from casinos, sportsbooks, and hotel arrangements. The two cities that are the best at doing this are definitely Las Vegas and Macau.

But which one has more success and deserves to be called the “Capital of Casino Gambling?” That’s what we’ll try to answer in this article by taking a closer look at the information collected by Casino Sites in an interesting infographic.

A Comparison of Revenues

Revenues are one of the most important things that we should consider when talking about this topic. It might seem that Macau is at a disadvantage since its surface area is three times smaller than that of Vegas. However, the population of both cities is pretty much the same.

Even though Macau is a much smaller city and has less space to fit gigantic casino resorts, it still has a gambling revenue that is three times higher than that of Las Vegas, which is quite impressive.

The GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue) of Las Vegas is $6.4 billion, 34% of which comes from playing casino games. The rest comes from hotel rooms and restaurants. On the other hand, Macau has a GGR of $28.04 billion. Of this amount, the city will get around $12 billion, which is twice as much as Las Vegas earns in total.

Moreover, Macau’s revenue keeps growing each year. Last year, the revenue rose by 23.7%, which was more than the projected 15-20% growth.

How Much Do They Tax Casinos?

Gambling cities’ main source of income is collecting taxes from casinos. They need to find a proper balance to take enough to keep growing, but not to take too much, or else they will repel the casino operators.

Macau Gambling Revenue

The monthly tax rate in Las Vegas for gambling businesses is 6.75% of GGR, which is not too bad. However, Vegas also requires casinos to pay a fixed annual tax of $250 on each slot machine if they have more than 15.

Moreover, the federal tax is 15-39%, depending on a lot of factors, and there are additional fees as well. So operating a gambling business in Vegas is not easy at all.

On the other hand, Macau has decided to simplify things as much as possible. Gambling businesses need to pay 40% of GGR in taxes to the city, which is a lot. In total, gambling taxes represent 78% of Macau’s income.

Demographics Play a Role

One of the biggest reasons why Macau is taking the role of the world’s capital of casino gambling away from Las Vegas is the demographics. Namely, two-thirds of Macau’s visitors come from China.

Macau Casino Revenue

China is a growing economy, which makes people willing and excited to spend money on things they could not afford before. The visitors base is much larger as well since China has a population of 1.3 billion people.

Macau Gaming Revenue

On the other hand, 49% of those who visit Las Vegas come from the Western United States. The rest of them come from foreign countries, mostly from Western Europe. A lot of Vegas visitors come on family and sightseeing trips.

They place some bets along the way, but they avoid overdoing it. That affects the revenue numbers, which is why Vegas earns much less than Macau.

You can look at an infographic: https://casinosites.me.uk/lasvegas-vs-macau-infographic/