Ho Iat Seng expects this year’s GGR to surpass MOP180 billion

The city’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) is expected to surpass MOP180 billion, Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng said on the sidelines of a celebratory event.

After attending the celebration for the 24th Anniversary of the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR), the head of the government was asked about the GGR figure.

In last year’s budget the government predicted this year’s GGR would be MOP130 billion. The first 11 months of the year has seen MOP160 billion. He then said he expected the figure to cross the MOP180 billion threshold at the end of the year.

The Macau government’s contracts with the six gaming concessionaires stipulated that an additional 20% of its pledge in the non-gaming investment will be required if gaming revenues recover to MOP180 billion this year.

Following winning licenses to operate late last year, and under the city’s biggest gaming law overhaul, the six casino operators agreed to invest a total of MOP118.8 billion after being granted 10-year operating licenses, with the bulk of the money pledged to non-gaming projects.

About a month ago, after Ho had given his Policy Address for the coming year, he told a press conference he did not expect this year’s GGR to reach MOP180 billion.

On economic recovery, Ho said revivals have been uneven, with some districts having recovered better than others. The more reinvigorated districts are tourism districts.

Noting that the current economic performance is only 70% of that in 2019, he hoped that recovery will be more evenly distributed in the coming year, saying that an additional 30% of recovery is needed.

Ho also said tourists from the western hemisphere only accounted for about 10% of the total tourist arrivals, and attributed the main cause to the lack of international direct flights to Macau. Adding that there are quite a number of visitors from Southeast and Northeast Asia, Ho said the ratio of mainland to non-mainland visitors is 65% to 35%.

Responding to questions about non-resident workers, Ho only said the government would strive to keep the number of these workers at the pre-Covid level.