The volume of Macau casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) appears to have reduced “considerably” in the second week of October, relative to the first eight days of the month, says a Monday note from Citigroup Inc.
Attributing the information to industry sources, analysts George Choi and Ryan Cheung stated: “Macau GGR for the first 15 days of October is likely to have reached about MOP10 billion” (US$1.24 billion).
They added that the implied daily GGR run rate for last week was MOP479 million, which was about “42 percent lower” than the MOP831 million per day managed in the opening eight days of October.
The slowdown reflected the impact of Typhoon Koinu on inbound tourism to Macau, due to the hoisting of the typhoon signal No.8, halting public transport on the afternoon of Sunday October 8 and up to late morning on Monday October 9.
Business volumes on the Monday had been “extremely low,” said the analysts.
There had also been a “seasonal slowdown post the National Day Golden Week” holiday period, observed Citigroup. The final day of what this year had been an eight-day holiday for the Chinese mainland was October 6.
“We expect traffic to gradually pick up, as popular Cantopop singer Eason Chan will perform his six remaining shows over the last two weekends of the month,” stated Mr Choi and Mr Cheung.
Citigroup opted to stick to an existing forecast for October GGR, namely at MOP19.5 billion, or circa 74 percent of October 2019 level, implying average daily GGR of MOP594 million for the rest of the month.
