Macau casino gaming revenue fell for the 15th straight month in August, forcing the local government to announce long-threatened austerity measures.

Gaming revenue fell 35.5% year-on-year to MOP 18.6b (US $2.3b) in August, better than most analysts had expected but worse than July’s 34.5% decline. The result reverses a trend of slowing declines that had held sway since February, which had led some observers to feel some kind of ‘floor’ had been reached.

In response, Macau’s government announced it was freezing a certain percentage of spending called for in the special administrative region’s most recent budget. The government had vowed to introduce such measures if average monthly revenue for the year to date fell below MOP 20b. If you want a barometer for how far Macau’s fortunes have fallen, the government originally budgeted for monthly revenue to average MOP 27.5b.

The austerity measures are expected to save Macau around MOP 1.4b in the current fiscal year but the government insists that cuts will not be made to social welfare services of the government’s investment plan.