Macau casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) rose 16 percent sequentially in the first 11 days of July, versus the final 10 days of June, estimated a Monday memo from brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd.
The institution added the month-to-date improvement in GGR was 29 percent compared to June.
The GGR improvement was linked to the cessation of Covid-19 cases in Guangdong province, Macau’s largest-single feeder market next door, said analysts Vitaly Umansky, Louis Li and Kelsey Zhu. They pointed that the GGR upward trend was related to a recovery in visitor volume since the end of June due to “removed travel restrictions for all Guangdong visitors.”
The easing of travel restrictions between Macau and Guangdong was “likely to reflect in a strong rebound of July GGR,” stated the Sanford Bernstein team.
Macau’s June GGR fell 37.4 percent month-on-month, according to government data.
The brokerage said in its Monday update that its channel checks indicated that Macau’s month-to-date GGR for July 1 to 11 was MOP3.1 billion (about US$387 million), with a month-to-date average daily rate of MOP282 million.
The latter tally was down 64 percent compared to July 2019, i.e., pre-pandemic, when the average daily rate was MOP789 million. This year’s July 1 to 11 period was up 29 percent month-on-month compared to June 2021, when it was MOP218 million.
VIP hold in the early July period covered by the memo was “above normal rate,” with VIP volume seeing a 25 percent increase in average daily rolling volume month-on-month, said Sanford Bernstein.
It estimated average daily mass GGR was also up, by 26 percent to 28 percent, relative to June.
