Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) was estimated to have reached circa MOP17.5 billion (US$2.17 billion) in the first 25 days of May, suggested banking institution Citigroup, citing its own industry sources.
The figure implied a daily run rate of approximately MOP686 million during the week to May 25 (Sunday), 16-percent higher than the MOP593-million average a day in the previous week, stated the institution in a Monday note.
It added: “Based on industry sources, VIP volumes grew about 25 percent to 30 percent month-on-month and mass GGR grew about 10 percent month-on-month.”
“The spike in last week’s GGR was a pleasant surprise. We suspect this was due to the newly opened Capella at Galaxy Macau,” wrote Citi analysts George Choi and Timothy Chau in Monday’s memo.
The Capella at Galaxy Macau hotel had a soft launch in early May, according to its promoter, Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd.
Capella at Galaxy Macau is a new 17-storey luxury hotel, featuring 36 villas and 57 “jungle-themed” suites, according to Galaxy Entertainment’s corporate materials.
The hotel houses a premium-mass room, branded “Horizon Plus”, which started operations in early May, according to a previous memo from Citi.
“Given there is only one weekend day remaining in May, we expect the daily GGR of the final six days to be moderate,” suggested the bank in its latest memo on the Macau gaming sector. It expects the Macau industry to generate MOP625 million daily in GGR in the final six days of May.
“We modestly raise our May 2025 GGR forecast from MOP21 billion to MOP21.25 billion,” added the Citi team.
If realised, the institution’s latest forecast for Macau casino GGR in May would represent about 82 percent of May 2019 levels, and a growth of 5 percent year-on-year, observed the analysts.
