After casinos in Macau suffered eight straight months of gaming revenue declines, MGM Chairman and CEO Jim Murren doesn't see stability in China any time soon.
Making matters worse is Beijing's crackdown on corruption in the industry, which has sent investors and gamblers alike scrambling for cover.
"I don't think that volatility is going away near-term," Murren said in an interview on CNBC this week. "This year is uncertain."
The Chinese government's shifting attitude towards gaming has put pressure on casinos that rely on revenues from VIP high rollers. That pressure was evident both in the latest Macau gaming revenue data, and in MGM's latest quarterly report, released on Feb. 17.
Over the past eight months, total gaming revenue in Macau has declined on average by more than 14 percent when compared with that of the prior year.
That dynamic spilled over into MGM's performance. The company saw net revenue from its MGM China unit plunge by 22 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. The biggest declines came from revenue generated from VIP table games, which dropped 39 percent in the quarter.
On CNBC's "Fast Money," Murren addressed the cold streak in Macau's VIP business. "We are very confident of Macau's long-term potential," he said, "but the VIP business, the high-end business, has been really suffering from the corruption crackdown in China."