Macau Mass Market Helps April Casino Revenue Outpace Expectations

Posted on: May 1, 2025, 11:10h. 

Last updated on: May 1, 2025, 02:44h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.
  • Macau gaming revenue totaled $2.36 billion in April
  • Macau and China are facing economic concerns
  • Macau is the world’s richest casino market

The Macau gaming industry topped analyst expectations in April.

Macau casino revenue China
The downtown Macau skyline and Grand Lisboa are seen in December 2024. Macau casino revenue surprised analysts in April, with players losing $2.36 billion to the houses. (Image: Shutterstock)

Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau reported Thursday that April’s gaming revenue totaled MOP18.86 billion (US$2.36 billion). The tally represented a month-to-month decline of 4.1% but was 1.7% higher than April 2024.

The consensus among analysts forecast a gross gaming revenue (GGR) year-over-year decrease of 1.25%. Those same analysts said a stronger-than-expected Easter holiday in terms of visitation and play in the Chinese Special Administrative Region, the only place under China’s control where casino gambling is permitted, helped overcome the dire prediction.

Still, through four months of 2025, GGR has grown less than 1% (0.8%) to $9.57 billion. Before 2025, analysts at JPMorgan projected year-over-year gaming win growth of 3%, a mark that now seems unlikely.

Challenging Economic Conditions 

The Macau gaming market is quite unlike it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Beijing forced the enclave’s local government and law enforcement to push out VIP junket groups, which has led to considerably fewer high rollers in town.

During the relicensing of the six gaming operators in 2022, also at the direction of President Xi Jinping, Macau required that Sands, Galaxy, Wynn, MGM, Melco, and SJM invest more than $16 billion into nongaming amenities. The thinking at the time was that such capital would diversify the Las Vegas of Asia into a more appealing destination for families, sports, and business. It so far hasn’t paid off.

The development of Macau’s diversified industries has not met expectations,” Macau Economy and Finance Secretary Tai Kin Ip conceded in April.

For Macau to return to its 2019 gaming levels where the six gaming giants jointly won more than $36.5 billion, the casinos’ hand has been forced to cater to the general public and so-called “premium mass” player, or a gambler who isn’t quite a high roller, but is still willing to lose tens of thousands of dollars per gambling trip.

Global economic worries have hampered Macau’s ability to attract those premium gamblers. Though May begins with the annual Labor Day that will bring in an estimated 140K visitors daily from the mainland, and the latter half of 2025 is forecast to show some GGR improvement, analysts blame the first four months for pulling back their full-year revenue estimates. That pre-2025 3% growth forecast from JPMorgan was revised last month to predict a full-year GGR loss from 2024.

Trade War Impact

Relations between the US and China are tense, with President Donald Trump and Xi exchanging tariff threats. Earlier this week, Fitch Ratings suggested there’s little risk to the Macau gaming concessions held by US-based firms, namely Sands, Wynn, and MGM.

Since Trump first took office in 2016, there’s been speculation that China might leverage an upper hand by threatening the licenses of the three casino companies that derive a considerable portion of their revenue from Macau.

Sands and Wynn have strong ties to Trump. Steve Wynn has been a longtime friend and supporter of Trump. Sands’ controlling stakeholder, Dr. Miriam Adelson, remains among Trump’s biggest campaign supporters.