Macau, China, July 17, 2026 (Lusa) - Revenue from high rollers, a segment known in Macau as VIP gambling, fell by 2.6% in the second quarter, year-on-year and by 18.8% compared with the previous three months, according to official figures.
VIP baccarat, the game that accounts for the entirety of the territory’s VIP sector, generated revenue of 15.9 billion patacas (€1.72 billion) between April and June, Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) announced on Thursday.
In the same period of 2025, high-stakes betting revenue stood at 16.3 billion patacas (€1.76 billion).
The figure now recorded also represents an 18.8% drop compared with the first quarter of 2026, when revenue from this segment reached 19.6 billion patacas (€2.05 billion).
However, VIP gaming in Macau remains far from the historic highs reached before the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2019, VIP baccarat accounted for 46.2% of Macau’s total casino revenue. However, in the second quarter of this year, its share stood at just 26.1%.
High-stakes gambling was affected by the arrest, in November 2021, of the head of the world’s largest VIP gambling brokerage firm.
The former chief executive of Suncity, Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, was sentenced in January 2023 to 18 years’ imprisonment, in a case that led to the number of gaming operator licences issued in Macau falling from 85 to 18.
The number of licences has been recovering and, according to DICJ data, currently stands at 29, although it remains below the government's maximum limit of 50.
Revenue from Macau’s most popular game, baccarat, in the so-called mass market, also fell by 1.2% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, reaching 35.2 billion patacas (€3.8 billion).
As the gambling capital of the world, Macau is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal.
Six concessionaires operate in the territory – MGM, Galaxy, Venetian, Melco, Wynn and SJM – which, in December 2023, renewed their concession contracts for the following ten years, with the new agreements coming into force on 1 January 2024.
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