The Macau casino industry just had its best month in more than two years.
Casinos in the special administrative region of China won a combined $2.88 billion from gamblers in February, up 18 percent year-over-year, according to figures from the local government. That’s the most the casinos have taken off of gamblers in a single month since early 2015.
Macau’s gaming market grew to more than $45 billion in 2013, but then Beijing started restricting the ability of high rollers to get money in Macau to gamble with. What happened next was a multi-year slump that saw citywide gaming win drop below $30 billion.
The roughly three dozen casinos won $27.9 billion last year, a 3.3 percent drop compared to 2015 but there was growth, finally, at the end of the year.
In August, the casinos ended a streak of 26 months where gaming win fell year-over-year.
The industry’s performance was lackluster in January, growing three percent when analysts were predicting eight-percent growth compared to January 2016. So the 18-percent gain in February is great news for the industry.
Macau’s fortunes still depend on high-stakes players, but the casinos are gradually trying to shift over to a better balance between high rollers and mass market customers. Nosebleed baccarat, at its peak, accounted for 90 percent of gaming win.
The local government also wants the industry to have at least nine percent of its revenue come from non-gaming offerings by 2020, up from 6.6 percent in 2014.
