Macau non-gaming share of revenue trends down: Ben Lee

Nov 27, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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Casino industry adviser IGamiX Management and Consulting Ltd estimates that, by the end of the third quarter this year, Sands China Ltd led Macau operators in terms of its non gaming revenue’s contribution to its gross revenue, with Sands China at 19.2 percent.

Sands China is especially known in the Macau market for its extensive non-gaming offer, and long-standing involvement in shopping malls and facilities for meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE).

But IGamiX managing partner Ben Lee (pictured) said the trend for non-gaming revenue’s overall contribution to Macau casino industry revenue, was actually downward after peaking at circa 22.0 percent amid the pandemic, in 2022. That was at a monetary value of only US$1.51 billion that year, when inbound tourism was limited by travel restrictions.

Up to September 30 this year, the consultancy puts non-gaming at 13.8 percent of Macau industry revenue, or US$3.35 billion. That was versus 15.2 percent, or US$4.05 billion in value terms, for the whole of 2023.

As a marker, in the pre-pandemic trading year of 2019, non-gaming was put by the consultancy at 10.5 percent of industry revenue, or US$4.22 billion in money terms.

Mr Lee also noted that estimating like-for-like between operators was difficult, as they each had their own ways of measuring non-gaming revenue.

But he said the likely year-on-year downward path in non-gaming revenue as a proportion of all Macau casino industry revenue was probably a function of the gambling business recovering quickly from its pandemic low.

“Is it a structural issue that [Macau] cannot move the needle on non-gaming? It’s an extremely complex and difficult question to answer, and I’m not sure anyone has the complete answer to that,” he stated.

His commentary was part of a breakfast lecture on Wednesday at the France Macau Chamber of Commerce. It was titled: ‘Macau’s New Gaming Landscape: Two Years into Concessions – What Now?’

The expansion of the non-gaming offer of Macau’s six casino operators was an important part of their pledge to the local government ahead of being issued with fresh 10-year concessions, which started in January 2023.

Mr Lee’s analysis for this year up to September 30, had Wynn Macau Ltd – operator of one resort on the city’s peninsula and another in Cotai – in second place, with 15.2 percent non-gaming revenue as a percentage of its gross revenue.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd, which has two large-scale Cotai complexes – City of Dreams and Studio City – was on 14.0 percent.

Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd was estimated at 13.3 percent. Since 2023, Galaxy Entertainment has had large-scale MICE facilities and a 16,000-seat arena after opening its Galaxy International Convention Center and Galaxy Arena at its flagship Galaxy Macau property on Cotai.

MGM China Holdings Ltd – which has one peninsula property and a Cotai complex – was ranked in fifth for non-gaming revenue’s contribution, at 10.5 percent of gross revenue.

SJM Holdings Ltd, the last Macau operator to open a Cotai resort, was estimated to have 5.6 percent of gross revenues stemming from non-gaming revenue.

Mr Lee stated: “The six operators don’t report in similar format. One may report net non-gaming revenue. Another one may report gross [non-gaming] revenue. We basically have to try and come up with estimates to give a like-for-like comparison.”

He observed that “gross non-gaming” would typically include complimentary services for casino-player reinvestment.

Were casino firms to report in that format, “it would obviously boost the non-gaming revenue part” of overall gross revenue, he observed.

(Updated 7.50am, Nov 28)

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