Gaming revenues soar

Macau's gross gaming receipts hit MOP$44.9 billion in the first six months of the year, up a whopping 45 per cent over the first half of last year.

The numbers put Macau on track to eclipse the city's total for last year (MOP$57.5 billion) within two months. In May alone, MOP$7.5 billion was raked in by the city's six concessionaires. The six-month figures are already more than that recorded for the whole of 2004.

Visitor arrivals, meanwhile, continue to surge. From January to July, 14,848,331 people visited – 8,086,130 from mainland China, 4,668,238 from Hong Kong.

Hotel occupancy between January – July this year was 73.71 per cent and the average length of stay was 1.25 nights.