Macau casinos take record fall in October

With mainland China’s enduring anti-corruption drive spooking high rollers and mass market players facing a smoking ban in the same old casinos, Macau gaming revenue fell 23.2% in October from a year earlier, the largest drop on record. Third quarter casino company earnings held up, but gaming revenue appears heading its first down year since the industry was opened to competition in 2002.

Totally globalized native New Yorker and former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is a blogger for Forbes and author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. See his bio, online archive and more at www.muhammadcohen.com; follow him on Facebook and Twitter @MuhammadCohen.