Macau, China, Oct. 1, 2025 (Lusa) - Macau's casino revenues rose 6% in September compared to the same period in 2024, it was announced on Wednesday, despite the impact of super typhoon Ragasa, the most powerful storm recorded on the planet in 2025.
The gaming sector collected 18.3 billion patacas (€1.94 billion) last month, the second lowest monthly figure of 2025, revealed Macau's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ).
Even so, revenues increased year-on-year, despite the passage of Ragasa, which led the authorities in the Chinese semi-autonomous region to close casinos for 33 hours.
Operators will have lost 880 million patacas (€93.6 million) in revenue, almost 5% of what was forecast for September, estimated Jeffrey Kiang, an analyst at consultancy CLSA, quoted by news portal GGRAsia.
The figure recorded in September represents 82.8% of that achieved in the same month of 2019, when Macau's casinos had revenues of 22.1 billion patacas (€2.35 billion).
Since the end of January 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on gambling, the engine of Macau's economy, with taxes on revenue from this industry funding the overwhelming majority of the government budget.
In terms of accumulated gross revenue, the first nine months of 2025 saw an increase of 7.1% compared to the same period last year, reaching 181.3 billion patacas (€19.3 billion).
Macau closed 2024 with total revenues of 226.8 billion patacas (approximately €24.1 billion), 23.9% higher than the previous year.
In the initial budget for 2025, the Macau government predicted that the year would close with total revenues of 240 billion patacas (approximately €25.5 billion), representing a 6% increase compared to the previous year.
But on 11 June, the territory's parliament approved a new budget, proposed by the Executive, which reduces the forecast for public revenue by 4.56 billion patacas (€484.6 million).
The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Anton Tai Kin Ip, admitted to parliamentarians that the cut was due to the fact that gross gaming revenue in the first quarter of 2025 was ‘slightly lower than expected’.
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 renewed their concession contract in December 2023 for the next ten years and which came into force on 1 January 2024.
VQ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
