Macao gambling revenues tumble 23%

Macao's casino revenue plunged by the most since the city started monthly records in 2005, as the Chinese mainland's crusade against corruption prompted gamblers to cut back on spending.

Total casino revenue in the world's biggest gambling hub fell 23.2 percent to 28 billion patacas ($3.5 billion) in October, dropping for the fifth straight month, according to Macao's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. This compared with the median estimate of a 21 percent decline from five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

"Revenue will remain very weak for the next few months, and we expect November and December also to be down quite a bit," said Aaron Fischer, a Hong Kong-based analyst at CLSA Ltd, adding the slump might not hit casinos' income as badly as most of the drop was in the VIP segment, which tends to have lower margins.