The Chinese peninsula of Macau has become the biggest gambling centre in the world in recent years, largely thanks to the fact that it is the only place in China where casinos can be operated.
However, in the month of November gambling revenues fell by a worrying 33.2% form, the same month last year, which means a drop in income of £1.36 billion.
It is feared that the current operation to reduce corruption in China has caused the big drop in casino revenue here. Estimates for the month’s drop in revenue was at around 31%, meaning that the casinos in Macau performed slightly worse than expected.
This is a special administrative region of China and the economy of Macau depends largely on the casino and other places where gambling tourists can spend money while visiting here.
China is currently running a campaign against both corruption and luxury spending. It is the brainchild of the country’s President, Xi Jinping, and started out at the end of 2012.It has been blamed for being the reason why many wealthy businessmen and government officials have stopped visiting Macau.
Apart from this, China has pointed out that Macau now needs to diversity and become less dependent upon the income made from gambling. It is expected that the region will look to increase general tourism figures through the building of new hotels and resorts.
Gambling has been popular in this former Portuguese colony for more than 3 centuries. It was only returned to the Chinese in 1999.
