Macau Casino Recovery Continues, October Marks Best Gaming Month Since 2019

Macau Casino Recovery Continues, October Marks Best Gaming Month Since 2019

With the six gaming licensees reporting their strongest month since the COVID-19 outbreak, Macau's casino boom resumed in October.

Gross gaming revenue (GGR), or money made from "games of fortune," as the government refers to slot machines and table games, was MOP24.086 billion (US$3.01 billion), according to the city's Gaming and Inspection Coordination Bureau. The October total was the best gaming month in the enclave since October 2019, before the outbreak.

In the aftermath of the coronavirus, August was the strongest month for gambling, but October 2025 saw a $2.76 billion casino win. Following a sluggish start, Macau's casino revenue has increased for nine months in a row.

Compared to October of last year, there was a 15.9% improvement. The consensus analyst forecast was an annual growth rate of 11.7%. The $3.01 billion from last month was 91.2% of the $3.3 billion GGR for October 2019.  

Prosperity Comes During Golden Week 

Golden Week, a holiday observed from October 1–8, honors the establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, and brings benefits to October every year. The majority of workers have paid time off during the weeklong celebration, which encourages travel around the mainland and to Macau and Hong Kong, China's two special administrative territories.

During 1.3 million people visited Macau during the course of the eight days, according to the Macau Tourism Office. There were 873,500 passengers from the mainland.

If it weren't for a typhoon disruption in late September that forced Macau's casinos to close for 33 hours so that people could stay put, October probably would have been even better in terms of visitor arrivals and gaming income.

Though Typhoon Ragasa largely spared Macau, aside from some flooding in low-lying areas, the storm hit the neighboring Chinese province of Guangdong hard. With extensive devastation throughout the region, Yangjiang was one of the hardest-hit cities, and many Golden Week trip plans were probably canceled.

The Macau casino's recovery was more than sustained in October. It contributed to what many predict would be a robust end to the city's biggest economic recovery since the pandemic.

GGR is up 8% so far this year compared to 2024, which is more than $1.91 billion. 

The Resilient Economy of China

Concerns have been raised about the uncertainties surrounding the second-largest economy in the world. US tariffs, declining domestic consumption, and slower exports were often mentioned issues.

Analysts think China has mostly survived the economic challenges as 2025 draws to a close.

"Better-than-expected third-quarter GDP growth of 4.8% year over year kept China’s 5% annual growth target within reach. Robust export activity continued to support industrial production despite mounting global trade uncertainty,” Vanguard Senior Economist Grant Feng wrote in an October economic outlook.

Growing international trade obstacles are the biggest worry for China's economy in the foreseeable future, according to Feng. However, Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump declared their meeting a success last week. According to reports, the two presidents reached a short-term agreement for access to rare earth minerals and the restart of US soybean sales to China, among other things.

Tensions between the two nations should decrease as a result of Trump's agreement to reduce his tariffs on China due to fentanyl. According to reports, Xi consented to collaborate with Trump on the fatal fentanyl crisis. The world's biggest supplier of the raw materials needed to produce fentanyl is China. Trump had therefore before suggested imposing up to 100% taxes on imports from China.