Optimistic future for Macau gambling market

The almost 40 casinos in Macau are reportedly continuing to slowly recover from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic after last week posting a rise of 18% month-on-month in daily aggregated gross gaming revenues to about $38.37 million.

According to a Monday report from GGRAsia, this is finding of analysts from international brokerage Sanford C Bernstein Limited with casinos in the former Portuguese enclave having chalked up combined gross gaming revenues of about $725.04 million from March 15 to 21. The source detailed that this tally was one of the highest for a non-holiday period and had also represented a boost of 13% week-on-week.

Coming confidence:

Louis Li, Kelsey Zhu and Vitaly Umansky from Sanford C Bernstein Limited reportedly explained that casinos in Macau are increasingly benefitting due to ever-improving travel sentiment across mainland China and should see their gross gaming revenues continue to develop throughout the rest of the spring. The trio purportedly used a Monday filing to moreover state that combined gambling receipts for March are likely to have experienced a ‘mid-60%’ drop when compared with the same period in 2019 to reach in the region of $1.13 billion.

Reportedly read a statement from the analysts…

“Macau gross gaming revenues during the third week of March improved again from the prior week even as VIP hold remained below normal. China has eased travel restrictions as the January/February coronavirus spike has come under control and Macau visitation has seen some increase.”

Embargo easing:

Looking even further into the future and the Sanford C Bernstein Limited analysts reportedly declared that they expect to see ‘a more robust’ increase in aggregated Macau gross gaming revenue figures this summer as tourist numbers pick up owing to the continued easing of local coronavirus-related travel restrictions. However, they purportedly warned that these rates are likely to ‘remain well below’ pre-pandemic levels owing to the ongoing prohibition on travellers from Hong Kong, strict testing rules and new protocols attached to the issuance of Individual Visitor Scheme (IVS) and group travel visas.

Expert evaluation:

For its part and Inside Asian Gaming later cited a filing from JP Morgan analysts Derek Choi and DS Kim to report that last week’s daily aggregated gross gaming revenues in Macau had equated to a decline of 59% when compared with the analogous period in 2019. This source purportedly disclosed that this puts the monthly figure on track to finish down by some 67% despite the filing from Sanford C Bernstein Limited heralding a recent swell of up to 7% month-on-month in VIP volumes alongside a 6% to 8% advance in mass-market levels.