GGRAsia – Macau daily GGR up 108pct w-o-w, hols helped: Bernstein

Macau daily GGR up 108pct w-o-w, hols helped: Bernstein

May 10, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Macau’s daily casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) from May 1 to 9 inclusive, is estimated to have reached MOP200 million (US$24.7 million), up by 108 percent by roughly week-on-week comparison, and by 124 percent from the daily average revenue across the month of April, helped by the holidays encompassing Labour Day, suggested brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd in a Tuesday memo.

Month-to-date Macau casino GGR for May 1 to 9, was MOP1.8 billion in aggregate, with improvement seen in VIP gaming and the mass segment, when compared to April, the brokerage said, citing channel checks.

China’s State Council designated April 30 to May 4 as this year’s Labour Day holiday, a five-day period when Macau saw an aggregate of 136,647 visitor arrivals.

May 1 to 9 GGR “was boosted by the Labour Dayd holiday seasonality (April 30 to May 4) and helped by Macau’s relaxed border policy (since April 25) with travellers entering from Guangdong now required to present a Covid[-19] test,” result obtained “up to 72 hours prior to entry,” wrote Bernstein analysts Vitaly Umansky and Louis Li.

Such casino GGR was, however, down 76 percent when compared to the average daily gaming revenue in May 2019, the trading year prior to the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Macau’s consecutive relaxations of the Covid measures” for travellers entering from the neighbouring mainland province of Guangdong, were “positive signals showing the government’s intention to start improving,” inbound visitor volume.

“However, much will depend on what happens in China with Covid outbreaks, lockdown measures and travel constraints,” the analysts added.

They expected Macau’s visitor volume and revenue would remain “largely constrained” due to the prevailing “restrictive” travel control measures. To date, mainland China is the only place to have a largely-quarantine free travel arrangement with Macau.

A number of jurisdictions in the Asia Pacific region have moved to a ‘living with Covid’ strategy after achieving a high vaccination rate against the disease among their populations. China has preferred a policy of Covid-19 containment and eradication.

“We forecast May 2022 GGR to be down 80 percent versus May 2019 (average daily revenue +88 percent month-on-month versus April 2022) but could easily be lower…if travel does not pick up during the month,” the Bernstein analysts wrote.