Macau Casinos Enjoy Best Month Since COVID-19, Recovery Continues
Posted on: August 1, 2025, 07:54h.
Last updated on: August 1, 2025, 09:10h.
- Macau casino revenue hit a post-COVID-19 high in July 2025
- Macau is nearing pre-pandemic visitation conditions
- Gaming revenue also continues to make gains
Macau casinos prospered in July, as gross gaming revenue (GGR) climbed 19% year over year to MOP22.12 billion (US$2.74 billion).
Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau reports that the six gaming operators in the Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR), one of only two SARS along with Hong Kong, won the most amount of money from gamblers since the emergence of COVID-19 in late 2019. June’s tally broke the region’s previous best post-COVID month of MOP21 billion set in June.
After a slow start to 2025, where casino win tumbled 6% in January, Macau has posted six consecutive months of year-over-year GGR growth. Year to date, Macau casinos have won approximately $17.44 billion, a 6.5% gain on 2024.
Macau Visitor Numbers Near 2019
2025 is proving the resiliency of Macau, the only place under China’s control where slot machines and table games are legal. The city underwent great change during and immediately after the coronavirus crisis and Xi Jinping’s “zero-COVID” policy, which significantly delayed China and its two SARs’ economic recoveries years after much of the rest of the world.
Junkets — the VIP travel groups that had schemed with the six casino giants to bring the mainland’s wealthiest players to the enclave — are a thing of the past. Macau has since focused on the general public and premium-mass customer, the latter being an individual who doesn’t meet the threshold to identify as a VIP, but is still able and willing to bet hundreds of dollars per hand of baccarat.
The six companies have invested billions into nongaming amenities and attractions, as well as resort upgrades. The bet is appearing to pay off, as Macau is attracting a more diverse, wider demographic.
Through six months, the Macau Statistics and Census Service reports that more than 19.2 million people traveled through the city’s border gates. That’s up 15% from 2024 and represents 95% of Macau’s first-half 2019 visitation. The 2025 half-year mark is 114% of the January through June 2018 visitor load.
Macau visitor arrivals are almost back to pre-pandemic levels, but gaming has a bit to go. The $17.44 billion mark through seven months represents 81% of the $21.53 billion that the six casinos won in 2019 through July.
Revenue Rally
Macau visitation is almost back to 2019 conditions, and gaming is trending in the right direction. July’s GGR of $2.74 billion was the best monthly mark since January 2020.
More growth is expected over the final five months of 2025.
We remain bullish on Macau as a sector, particularly behind the reacceleration in GGR,” a note from CBRE Equity Research analysts John DeCree and Max Marsh read.
“The entire market trend seems promising for the summer,” added JP Morgan Securities analysts DS Kim and Selina Li.
This week, Casino.org reported on stock rebounds for the publicly traded casino firms in Macau. Over the past six months, shares of Las Vegas Sands are up 17%, MGM Resorts is up 7%, Wynn Resorts has soared 30%, and Melco Resorts has jumped 54%.
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