Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the first 21 days of July was estimated at MOP12.75 billion (US$1.59 billion), or MOP607 million a day, a level that reflected “decent” gaming demand despite concerns over the negative impact from China’s pledged clampdown against illicit currency exchange touts, stated a Monday memo from JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd.
Citing its own industry checks, the JP Morgan team said the GGR run-rate in the third week of July had likely remained “flattish” week-on-week at MOP635 million a day, though much higher than the MOP550 million a day in the first week of the current month.
“This reflects pretty decent – albeit not fantastic – demand from summer holidays, despite concerns regarding a crackdown on illegal foreign currency exchange gangs,” wrote JP Morgan’s analysts DS Kim, Mufan Shi and Selina Li.
The institution maintained its forecast for Macau’s casino GGR in July at around MOP18.5 billion. Such tally – if realised – would represent 76-percent of the same month in 2019, the immediate trading year before Covid-19.
“Month-to-date by segment, we estimate mass GGR is at circa 110 percent of the pre-Covid-19 level, while VIP is around mid-20s percent – probably a touch below sell-side expectations but in-line with the buy-side’s, in our view,” the JP Morgan team noted.
Macau’s casino mass market segment – including slot machines – generated revenue of just under MOP43.12 billion in the second quarter of 2024, up 29.3 percent from a year earlier but flat sequentially.
Revenue from mass-market baccarat alone stood at nearly MOP34.63 billion in the three months to June 30. The second-quarter mass-market baccarat revenue figure was up 17.0 percent on the same quarter in 2019, according to the city’s casino regulator’s data.
