Macau GGR slumps below Vegas Strip for 2022

2022 has been a year to forget for Macau’s casinos.

Official figures from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) had gross gaming revenue for the year coming in at 42 billion MOP. Thats around US$5.2 billion.

Sounds like quite a bit. But it’s less than half the figure for 2021 – which was also a horrible year.

2022 & 2021 Gross Gaming Revenues (GGR) for Macau’s casinos (MOP 000,000’s)

Totals back in the halcyon days (for casinos, not players) were more than ten times 2022’s number. This is when the VIP junkets were at their peak and the special administrative region was awash with cash from mainland China.

Calendar year GGR topped out in 2013 at 360 billion MOB (US$45 billion). 2014 wasn’t far behind.

For perspective, this put Macau’s market at around seven times the size of the Las Vegas strip.

The gap is illustrated by the below chart.

Also illustrated by the chart is the slow and steady nature of Vegas’ growth versus the volatility of Macau, whose fortunes are so closely pinned to decisions made by China’s communist party.

Macau’s line resembles a 2 hump camel. The first hump telling the tale of meteoric growth until 2014 then a Xi Jinping led corruption crackdown which turned the tap down through 2016. Restrictions were eased for a couple years creating the upside of hump 2. Then came Covid.

The world’s casino gambling capital has been battered by China’s Covid zero policy. All terrestrial casino markets have been affected by Covid. But others around the world bounced back in 2021 and have continued momentum in 2022.

Vegas Strip casinos reflect this. 2021 was their best ever year. 2022 will go close to beating it (final figures not yet released).

China’s Covid zero policy continued right through until the end of 2022. Continued strict lockdowns and travel restrictions have starved Macau of access to their most important market.

Chinese are now back flying again so 2023 will likely be very different. No doubt some pent up desire to hit the old baccarat tables also. But for the first time an a long time, and maybe for the last time ever, 2022 saw Las Vegas have a bigger year than Macau.