The Macau gaming operator Melco announced today a profit of $32.5 million. In a statement submitted to the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York, Melco Resorts and Entertainment highlighted that revenues increased by 11%, reaching $1.23 billion (€1.1 billion).
In the first three months of the year, Macau’s casinos recorded total revenues of nearly MOP 57.7 billion (€6.66 billion), up 0.6% compared to the same period in 2024.
Melco operates in the semi-autonomous region of Macau, the world’s gambling capital and the only place in China where casino gambling is legal, as well as in Cyprus and the Philippines, and is currently developing a casino in Sri Lanka.
Company president Lawrence Ho Yau-lung stated in the announcement that the completion of the City of Dreams Sri Lanka is “progressing well” and he expects the casino to commence operations in the third quarter of 2025.
Lawrence Ho, son of the late gambling tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun (1921-2020), highlighted the results in Macau, where bets placed by small players in the mass gaming segment “increased every month during the quarter” and set a daily record.
Bets in the mass segment at Melco’s casinos in Macau reached $2.68 billion (€2.39 billion), up 3% from the first three months of 2024.
Bets from high rollers in the VIP gaming segment increased by 6.3% to $6.05 billion (€5.39 billion).
In 2019, VIP gaming accounted for 46.2% of Macau casino revenues, but in the first three months of the year, this segment comprised only 25.1%.
The high-stakes gaming segment was impacted by the arrest of the head of the world’s largest VIP betting promoter in November 2021.
Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, former CEO of Suncity, was sentenced in January 2023 to 18 years in prison, in a case that reduced the number of gaming promoter licenses in Macau from 85 to 18.
The six operators, MGM, Galaxy, Venetian, Melco, Wynn, and SJM, have signed new ten-year concession contracts effective from January 1, 2023.
The authorities required bidders to emphasize non-gaming elements and attract foreign visitors.
Melco plans to invest around MOP 10 billion (€2.21 billion) in the non-gaming segment over a decade, including at the “only water park in Macau with indoor facilities open year-round.”
On Wednesday, the company relaunched the largest permanent show in the territory, The House of Dancing Water, at the City of Dreams hotel-casino, which had been suspended since June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
