Apr 03, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  
Brokerage JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd estimates that Macau’s mass-market gross gaming revenue (GGR) “recovered to about 65 percent of pre-Covid levels” in the first quarter this year, after March GGR “comfortably beat sell- and buy-side estimates”.
That compared with first-quarter revenue in the VIP segment “at 17 percent” of 2019’s level, stated the institution in a Sunday note.
Macau’s headline casino GGR was up 246.9 percent year-on-year in March, to just under MOP12.74 billion (US$1.58 billion). The result was the best monthly performance since January 2020 – prior to the onset of the pandemic alert, according to official data.
March’s result means first-quarter GGR tallied MOP34.64 billion, up 94.9 percent on the prior-year’s quarter, reaching about 45 percent of pre-Covid levels. The tally for the first three months of 2023 accounted for 82.1 percent of aggregate GGR in full-year 2022.
The official breakdown for VIP versus mass-market gambling in the first quarter will be released by the city’s regulator later this month.
According to JP Morgan, most of Macau casino operators – aside from SJM Holdings Ltd – “should be able to generate handsome free cash flow at this level, well above capex/financing costs”.
“March run-rate of MOP411 million a day… should reassure investors of a clear sequential ramp in demand,” wrote analysts DS Kim and Mufan Shi.
“Importantly, March print also implies mass GGR has finally hit 70 percent-plus of pre-Covid levels for the industry … and VIP recovery of circa 18 percent of pre-Covid levels also looks pretty solid for a segment that was once considered completely ‘gone’,” they added.
Moody’s Investors Service Inc said in a note last week it expected Macau’s casino GGR this year to be about 45 percent of 2019’s level, with mass-market GGR likely to “improve to 75 percent” of pre-pandemic times, and fully recover in 2024.
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”Even in the darkest moments of the pandemic, we’ve always said this market will come back strong… We’re big believers in Macau”
Robert Goldstein
Chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands