HONG KONG, Sept 3, 2009 (AFP) - Macau's casinos raked in a record 1.5 billion dollars (S$2.17 billion) in August, their highest-ever monthly revenue and up more than 17 percent on the same month last year, a report said Thursday.

Analysts hailed the second consecutive month of year-on-year revenue growth in the world's largest casino market as the start of a recovery, the South China Morning Post said, after a 12.4 percent decline in the first half.

The August figure of 11.27 billion patacas (1.5 billion dollars) was 17.8 percent higher than the previous month, and 33 percent more than the average monthly revenue during the 12 months to July, the report said.

The previous monthly record stood at 10.33 billion patacas in January 2008.

Morgan Stanley analyst Praveen Choudhary expects this month's casino revenue to grow 40 percent from a low of 7.09 billion patacas a year earlier, according to the Post.

Tourism has surged since the former Portuguese colony's casino industry was liberalised and billions of dollars of investment began pouring in. With enormous casino complexes cropping up over the past few years, Macau has easily overtaken Las Vegas in terms of gaming revenue.

Macau's August figure was slightly more than triple the Las Vegas Strip's 471.25 million dollar average monthly casino revenue during the 12 months to June, the Post said.

The August rise comes despite a worsening economy, with Macau's GDP shrinking 13.7 percent in the second quarter of the year, according to China's official Xinhua news agency.

Zeng Zhonglu, of the Macau Polytechnic Institute, said it showed the former Portuguese colony's gaming market is yet to be saturated despite operators continuing to unveil new concessions, the agency said.

City of Dreams and Hotel Lan Kwai Fong Macau opened in June and August, bringing the city's total number of casinos to more than 30.

However, the Macau government has predicted a 10 percent drop in gross gaming revenues for the whole year.