Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) rose 8.8 percent year-on-year in October, to MOP21.82 billion (US$2.73 billion), said on Tuesday the local regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
The October result was the best month for the city’s casinos since January 2015, when GGR totalled MOP23.84 billion, according to official data.
The result marked only the third time in 29 months that monthly revenue had not contracted, judged year-on-year. The improvement began in August, when monthly casino GGR expanded by 1.1 percent after 26 straight months of decline.
For the 10 months to October 31, Macau’s aggregate casino GGR was MOP184.61 billion, a shrinkage of 5.8 percent from the prior-year period.
“Overall indications, both anecdotal and quantitative, continue to suggest that the Macau market is improving,” said analysts David Katz and Brian Davis of Telsey Advisory Group LLC in a note before the official results for October were announced.
“Recent trends have noted that the two new properties [in the market] are indicating strong volumes and performance,” they added, referring to Wynn Palace and the Parisian Macao, developed respectively by Wynn Macau Ltd and Sands China Ltd.
Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong Vai Tac, had said on June 8 that the government was maintaining its 2016 forecast for the city’s casino GGR at MOP200 billion.
