Macau casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) was up 14 percent week-on-week in the first week of December, suggested a Monday note from brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd.
It estimated that daily mass-market GGR was up 20 percent from November’s daily average.
The improvement came amid news of the detention in Macau of Suncity Group junket boss, Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, on suspicion of promoting cross-border proxy gambling.
The brokerage said the average daily rate of GGR for December 1 to December 5 was MOP260 million (US$32.4 million), versus MOP228 million in the prior week.
“We forecast December GGR to be down 68 percent versus December 2019, i.e., up 9 percent month-on-month, as mass improves but VIP faces headwinds,” wrote Sanford Bernstein analysts Vitaly Umansky, Louis Li and Kelsey Zhu.
They noted that what they termed the “Suncity case” had “evolved quickly over the last week”.
All Suncity VIP rooms in Macau ceased operation as of December 1.
The brokerage referred in its Monday note to unconfirmed reports that Wynn Macau Ltd intended to shutter all its junket operations.
GGRAsia separately approached on Monday Wynn Macau Ltd and the Macau gaming regulator the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, a body also known as DICJ, for clarification of the position regarding Wynn Macau Ltd’s VIP operations.
The casino firm had not replied by the time this story went online. DICJ sent GGRAsia a press release it had issued last week, that had confirmed the closure in Macau of all VIP gaming rooms of Suncity Group. The regulator said it had nothing further to add.
In other commentary in its Monday note, Sanford Bernstein stated – citing Macau immigration data and its own research – that the daily average inbound and outbound movement of tourists for November 25 to December 1 was 58,000. It said this was higher than this year’s “peak” recovery month of May, which had seen a “57,000 daily average” in cross-border movements.
The Sanford Bernstein analysts said that mainland China’s Covid-19 situation had “stabilised” but that Guangdong, the province next door to Macau, had one local case last week, which was “something to watch”.
“Any outbreak in Guangdong may severely impact Macau’s visitation in the near term,” stated the brokerage.
Sanford Bernstein said a potential positive on the horizon was that starting from Friday (December 10), the Hong Kong government would launch its new ‘Hong Kong Health Code’ system, which the institution said was “seen as a major step forward for quarantine-free travel opening” between Hong Kong and respectively mainland China and Macau.
