Macau’s October casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) rose by 31.6 percent month-on-month, to nearly MOP3.90 billion (US$482.3 million) from September’s MOP2.96 billion, according to government data released on Tuesday.
It was a second instance of sequential monthly gain, after previous choppy performance in GGR amid periodic Covid-19 alerts and periodic adjustments to travel rules concerning Macau’s border with Zhuhai in neighbouring Guangdong province. Most tourists to Macau come from mainland China, and the bulk cross via the land border with Zhuhai.
Judged year-on-year, October’s tally was a 10.7-percent decline from the nearly MOP4.37 billion achieved in October 2021.
“This implies a daily run-rate of MOP126 million, representing a meagre 15 percent of pre-Covid levels – which is not surprising at all under the circumstances,” said analysts DS Kim and Livy Lyu of JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd, in a Tuesday note following the issuance of the October numbers.
The latest monthly result issued by the local regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), meant GGR for the calendar year to October 31 stood at MOP35.72 billion, down 50.5 percent on the prior-year period.
The update was issued as Macau again embarked on mass testing of the city’s entire population, amid 10 confirmed cases of Macau people with Covid-19 infection. The process started at 7am on Tuesday (November 1) and runs until 11am on Wednesday.
October encompassed the so-called autumn Golden Week at the start of the month, a week-long break that has traditionally been an important earnings season for Macau casinos and tourist facilities. Macau logged an aggregate of more than 182,000 visitor arrivals from October 1 to 7 inclusive, according to the city’s authorities.
(Updated 4.45pm, Nov 1)
