Macau daily gross gaming revenue (GGR) was down 14 percent week-on-week during July 19 to 25, according to estimates by brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd.
Macau casino GGR is not always a proxy for actual visitor volume to the city, according to historical data from pre-pandemic periods, but the institution noted in the same memo that a “new wave” of Covid-19 cases in mainland China “may limit near term” the visitor volume to Macau.
Currently, only the mainland has a largely quarantine-free travel bubble with Macau.
For the seven days to July 25, average daily Macau casino revenue was MOP257 million (US$32.1 million) suggested analysts Vitaly Umansky, Louis Li and Kelsey Zhu, versus MOP300 million in the prior week.
“We forecast July GGR to be down around mid-60s of percent compared to July 2019; up approximately 30 percent month-on-month from June 2021,” they added.
July’s overall sequential GGR improvement had been driven by visitor volume recovery “following the June travel disruption in Guangdong” caused by a Covid-19 outbreak, said the institution, referring to the mainland province next door to Macau.
Sanford Bernstein stated, regarding a fresh outbreak of mainland cases linked to Nanjing in Jiangsu province: “Two recent cases linked to the new wave of local Covid-19 infections in Nanjing have raised concerns about potentially a new outbreak in Guangdong: so far it is under control with Covid testing of the entire city of Zhuhai slated to be completed on Tuesday [July 27].”
