Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) for July fell by 4.5 percent year-on-year to MOP17.77 billion (US$2.22 billion), according to data from the city’s regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, also known as DICJ. It was the 26th straight month of GGR retreat measured in year-on-year terms.
The July numbers mean that Macau’s accumulated GGR for the seven months to July 31 now stands at MOP125.56 billion, a fall of 10.5 percent on the same period in 2015.
Judged month-on-month, the July 2016 tally showed an improvement of 11.9 percent. June had been the lowest monthly tally for Macau casino GGR since September 2010.
“As expected, seasonality continues to be more pronounced as the mass summer period and an additional weekend in July boosted the average monthly lift from June,” analysts Carlo Santarelli and Danny Valoy of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc said in a note on Monday.
“Relative to June, July was up 8.3 percent on a sequential win per day basis, versus an average win per day sequential gain of 1.9 percent over the previous four years,” noted the Deutsche Bank team.
Cameron McKnight of Wells Fargo Securities LLC suggested in a Monday note that the last week of July “was the strongest in the month”.
“Our contacts suggest that ferry and traffic on gaming floors were high throughout the week. The overall drop was an improvement from the decline in June (8.5 percent) and year to date (10.5 percent),” added Mr McKnight.
(Updated at 9.17am, Aug 2)
