Macau casino gaming revenue fell again in March, dashing hopes that the world’s top gambling hub might have reversed its nearly two-year decline.

Figures released Friday by Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) showed March’s gaming revenue total falling 16.3% year-on-year to MOP 18b (US $2.3b). That decline extends Macau’s revenue losing streak to 22 months, spoiling the belief that February’s 0.1% decline had signalled an end to the special administrative region’s oft-told tale of woe.

Most analysts had expected a decline closer to 15.5% while more bearish Macau watchers had suggested a decline in the low-20s was in the offing, so split the difference. For the first quarter of 2016, gaming revenue is down 13.3% year-on-year to MOP 56b.

Paulo Martins Chan, the recently appointed head of the DICJ, told Radio Macau this week that he was of the opinion that Macau’s “most difficult times are now behind us.” Chan suggested that 2016’s total revenue would be down around 10% from 2015 when all was said and done, which really only sounds good when compared with 2015’s catastrophic one-third plunge.