The investment bank JP Morgan expects Macau’s October gross gaming revenue to hit a new post-COVID high, surpassing the post-pandemic record of MOP17.2 billion ($2.1 billion) achieved in August this year.

Visitor arrivals in the Macau SAR have increased by 16.7 percent month-on-month to more than 3.22 million in August 2023, marking the highest monthly visitor arrivals so far this year.

Macau’s tourism is soaring during the summer holiday season, as the gaming hub welcomed 139,000 visitor arrivals on Saturday, marking the highest daily count since the onset of COVID.

Macau stands to benefit highly from the Chinese outbound tourism market to international destinations remaining depressed, as well as from the change in the experiences desired from a younger demographic

Even though the world's largest gaming hub Macau recovered strongly in the first half of the year, it still needs to catch up with neighboring Hengqin or Zhuhai, according to an industry insider.

Although e-sport betting is illegal in China, the esports hotel industry in the country has gained momentum, especially after easing all COVID travel restrictions. The industry has adopted a franchise model to scale business, and market participants have started to build their brands to capitalize on its ongoing expansion. 

In the past few months, many countries in Asia have opened their borders to international tourists and eased travel restrictions. The casinos in the Philippines are recovering with increasing gaming revenue during the past few months.

Gaming revenue in Australia’s pubs & clubs sector has shown mixed signs of recovery in the country’s three largest states, with Queensland and New South Wales surging back to above pre-Covid levels and Victoria struggling to catch up. In this week’s Face-to-Face, Geoff Wohlsen talks about the differences in the recovery patterns.

Macau’s non-resident workforce has fallen by a third post-Covid and operators will be required to prioritize locals in their hiring going forward. 

Kangwon Land, the only casino in South Korea where locals are allowed to gamble, is expected to continue to outperform its peers as the country reopens after Covid