Macau’s bad luck may have started to turn, as first-quarter gaming revenues jumped 8.1 percent from the previous quarter after a dismal second half in 2008, official figures showed.
Revenues in Q1 ’09 were 26.02 billion patacas (3.26 billion dollars), up from 24.08 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) said.
The upturn follows three straight quarter-on-quarter drops in revenue in the former Portuguese-administered territory, after tighter visa restrictions on visitors from mainland China hit operators.
But the figure was still down 12.8 percent compared to the record first quarter of 2008, according to the statistics released last Friday.
The market for VIP baccarat was 16.83 billion patacas in the first three months of the year, down 19.1 per cent from the first quarter of 2008, but up 7.8 percent from the fourth quarter.
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