Macau casinos celebrated a grim milestone in May as gaming revenue fell for the 12th consecutive month.

According to the city’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), casino gaming revenue fell 37.1% last month to MOP 20.35b (US $2.55b), roughly in line with analysts’ expectations. This marks one full year since Macau posted a revenue gain, underscoring the brutal effectiveness of Beijing’s clampdown on corruption among public officials.

Highlighting how bad things have become in Macau, reaction to May’s decline has largely been relief that it wasn’t worse. Casino concessionaires and their investors continue to hope that the now somewhat stable rate of decline means that, while a recovery is not expected anytime soon, perhaps some kind of bottom has been reached.

On an individual basis, Sands China held the biggest slice of May’s gaming revenue market share at 26.5%, up 2.3% from April. SJM Holdings ranked second with 21.8%, while the other four operators finished as follows: Galaxy Entertainment Group (18.5%), Melco Crown Entertainment (14.3%), Wynn Macau (9.9%) and MGM China (9%).