Macau’s declines in gaming revenue narrowed last month, after plunging at least 90 percent for six straight months, in a sign that China’s relaxation of travel and visa curbs is starting to attract mainland visitors.
Gross gaming revenue last month fell 72.5 percent to 7.27 billion patacas (US$910 million) from a year earlier, data released yesterday by the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau showed.
That was better than the median analyst estimate for a 74 percent drop.
Photo: Reuters
Revenue in the first 10 months of this year has fallen 81.4 percent to 45.9 billion patacas, the data showed.
Macau’s recovery from COVID-19 curbs has been slow after China gradually lifted travel restrictions, resuming Macau tourist visas as of Sept. 23.
Demand has remained tepid due to COVID-19 regulations and muted sentiment from VIP high-rollers to gamble, with mainland Chinese visitor arrivals during Golden Week early last month down 84 percent from a year earlier.
However, gamblers are starting to return in volume as a visa backlog clears.
“Toward the end of October, the number of visitors increased, but it’s still far away from our normal level,” said Joe Liu, director of Macau’s largest e-payment company, Macau Pass SA, which is accepted in more than 18,000 locations, including restaurants and retail outlets.
However, he said that the visitors returning first are the high-spending customers who do not hold back.
Analysts say the key to a continued recovery would be a streamlining of the visa-issuance process and virus-testing requirements, which hinder mainland tourists from visiting Macau.
Fears that China is broadening a crackdown on offshore gambling have sparked a rush to withdraw billions of US dollars in Macau, threatening a recovery in the coronavirus-stricken economy, executives said.
The Bloomberg Intelligence index of Macau casino operators dropped 5.6 percent last month amid the slow pace of recovery. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index gained 2.8 percent in the same period.
Additional reporting by Reuters
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure