Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) is forecast to reach MOP18.5 billion (US$2.3 billion) in April, equal to around MOP617 million a day, according to a Monday memo from Citigroup. The institution said that would be about 78 percent of the level seen in April 2019, the trading year prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Citigroup’s update followed release that day of the city’s March GGR data, which recorded a figure just above MOP19.50 billion, which was equal to around US$2.4 billion.
Citigroup analysts George Choi and Ryan Cheung stated that the March tally suggested the daily run-rate for the final seven days of the month was circa MOP658 million, up from around MOP629 million in the prior week.
“We believe the higher daily run rate was mainly driven by the higher visitation to Macau during the Easter holidays (March 29 to April 1 for Hong Kong),” the analysts said.
Macau saw a daily average of just above 100,000 visitor arrivals for the four-day Easter period, according to data from the Public Security Police. March 30, a Saturday, saw an Easter peak of 122,235.
The Easter season is not a holiday on the Chinese mainland. But China will have a public holiday period running from this Thursday (April 4) until Saturday (April 6) inclusive, to mark the Ching Ming festival.
After that, the next major holiday on the mainland will be the Labour Day break, which will run from May 1 (a Wednesday) to May 5 (a Sunday) inclusive.
