Inside Gaming: Macao on verge of breaking annual visitation record this year
Macao is on the verge of setting a record for the most annual visitors.
The city’s Public Security Police said visitation hit 39.411 million visitors on Saturday, surpassing the record 39.40 million hit in 2019.
Christmas is not a public holiday in Macao’s main tourist feeder market, mainland China, but it is an official holiday period in Hong Kong, the city’s second-largest source of visitors. Dec. 26 also is a public holiday in Hong Kong.
Visitor arrivals from January to November 2025 had already exceeded last year’s total of 34.9 million, according to tourism data.
Three Las Vegas-based companies operate casinos in Macao.
Visitors from the Chinese mainland accounted for 72.4 percent of total arrivals, while those from Hong Kong represented 18.3 percent. Visitors holding travel documents from outside greater China made up 6.8 percent of the total.
By comparison, Las Vegas isn’t expected to be anywhere close to a record in 2025. For the first 10 months of the year, visitation is down 7.6 percent to 32.3 million.
Las Vegas’ best year was in 2016 when 42.9 million arrived in the city.
City gaming tax
Chicago on Thursday plans to implement a 10.25 percent tax on sports betting generated on apps within the city limits.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson last week agreed not to veto a $16.6 billion budget that includes the first-of-its-kind municipal tax on sports wagers.
The city anticipates generating $26 million annually from the tax.
Ten online sportsbooks in Illinois must also pay taxes at the state and county levels.
Sports prop bet legislation
A Hawaii senator says he plans to introduce legislation in 2026 to restrict sports proposition bets.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told a sports podcaster that he is responding to recent gambling scandals in the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball in which players manipulated game performance to profit from sports wagering.
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was arrested on fraud and money laundering charges in October. The FBI and federal prosecutors said Rozier in 2023, then playing for the Charlotte Hornets, conspired with a friend to bet the under on his individual performance on prop bets and the two men shared the profits.
Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter also pleaded guilty in 2024 to fraud after manipulating his performance to help a group of gamblers win their bets.
Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase and starting pitcher Luis Ortiz were arrested and charged in November for providing insider information about the location and speed of their first pitches in games to help two gamblers in the Dominican Republic.
Schatz is working with professional leagues, player associations and sports betting operators to refine his legislative proposal that he says would be directed at markets that could be manipulated by a “single bad actor.”
Massachusetts iGaming
State lawmakers in Massachusetts have delayed a proposal to legalize online casinos.
The Massachusetts Legislature voted last week to delay a bill authored by Rep. David Muradian to March 16.
State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg said online casinos could overshadow the state’s lottery marketing efforts. Goldberg oversees the lottery.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Sen. John Keenan also have expressed concerns about problem gambling and called for stronger consumer protections and regulatory oversight.
Critics fear the delay could push some gamblers to illegal offshore gambling sites.
Massachusetts would become the eighth state to legalize iGaming if Muradian’s bill becomes law.
Internet gambling is legal in New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
