Yahoo Finance Macau gaming revenue falls 34% in 2015
Macau's gambling revenue ended 2015 with a whimper, falling for a second straight year as China's corruption crackdown continued to keep high rollers from the Asian gaming hub.
Gaming revenue fell 21.2 percent in December, declining for the 19th consecutive month, according to numbers released by Macau's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, as China suffers a painful growth slowdown and Beijing's hard-hitting campaign against corruption has hammered Macau's key VIP sector.
For the year, revenue was down 34.3 percent to 230.84 billion patacas ($28.92 billion), a five year low. Gaming revenue fell 2.6 percent in 2014.
The figure for 2015 was in line with expectations of nine analysts polled by Bloomberg News who predicted a decrease of 35 percent.
The city's VIP section is also expected to fall 13 percent in 2016, analysts told Bloomberg.
"Macau has seen much greater pain in 2015 than everyone expected at the beginning of the year," Aaron Fischer, head of consumer and gaming research at CLSA, said ahead of the results, Bloomberg News reported.
The slowdown in Macau, a semi-autonomous Chinese city, has been in part attributed to a high-profile corruption crackdown led by Chinese President Xi Jinping with Beijing making it clear it wants the former Portuguese colony to move away from gambling.
Casino operators in Macau -- the only place in China where casino gambling is allowed -- are trying to lure mass market visitors to make up for the drop in high-roller gamblers who comprise the bulk of the city's gaming income.
This has led to a slew of of mega-projects on former swamp land on the coastal Cotai strip.
The latest launch was of the Studio City hotel and casino resort in October -- featuring the world's first figure-of-eight rollercoaster -- that was fronted by Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Wynn Resorts founder billionaire Steve Wynn has previously said the situation in Macau was "uncertain".
"There's no question that uncertainty is the plaguing word of the day in Macau," he said in April.
Wynn Resorts in November said the opening of its new $4.1 billion Wynn Palace -- a floral-themed 1,700-room resort featuring a lake with gondolas -- would be delayed by three months to June 25, 2016.
Macau soared past Las Vegas as the world's gambling capital after opening up to international operators in 2001 and raked in more than seven times its US counterpart in 2014.
However, it is now being forced to follow Vegas' lead and transform from a hardcore gambling hub into a destination with much broader appeal.
