Macau’s gaming revenue in January 2023 increased by 82.5% year on year to 11.58 billion mop, well above market expectations and the highest since the pandemic. Professor Davis Ka Chio FONG, director of the Gaming Research Institute at UM, was interviewed by ‘TDM’ recently. He described it as overjoyed and this gave confidence to the industry. He believes that it is related to the promotion of various activities during the Spring Festival. There are more sufficient data in February and March to predict the situation in the next year. He is optimistic that the annual gambling revenue is expected to be 130 billion. Prof. Davis also noted that although the gambling revenue is still lower than the 20 billion per month before the epidemic, but this time it is mainly high-end midfielders, and the gross profit margin is higher than before, therefore it cannot be directly compared.
In addition, it is rumored that the government plans to re-impose a 5% Junket Operator. Prof. Davis said that the levy is appropriate when the market recovers, and the 5% commission tax only accounted for a very small proportion of the junket operator’s operating costs. Currently, the number of gaming junkets has decreased significantly, and the competition in the industry is small. He believed that if there is business, the commission tax will be acceptable for junket operators.
Sources: tdm.com
