GGRAsia – Macau premium play demand still robust in July: Citi

Macau premium play demand still robust in July: Citi

Jul 15, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Current gaming demand in Macau’s premium mass play remains robust, as investors’ concerns over the negative impact on casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) from China’s pledged clampdown against illicit currency exchange touts was “likely overdone”.

So suggested banking institution Citigroup in its July premium mass table survey in the Macau market. Its analysts George Choi and Ryan Cheung said they have observed in July a year-on-year increase in the total wager in premium mass play, and also in the number of premium mass players, a cohort of high-denomination cash bettors.

“We continue to believe that most players in Macau have their own legitimate ways to get their funds over to Macau, sufficient for them to bet as much as HKD1 million [US$128,075] a hand, based on our observations,” the Citi analysts remarked.

Total premium mass wager observed in the July survey amounted to approximately HKD12.2 million, 34-percent higher than the circa HKD9.1 million observed in the same month a year ago. The number of premium mass player seen in this month’s survey amounted to 575, 61-percent higher than a year ago.

“This implies that wager per player in July 2024 has recovered to HKD21,193 (15-percent higher than June 2024’s HKD18,478). Our survey once again indicates that gaming demand remains robust,” stated Citi.

Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd and Sands China Ltd have, respectively, ranked first and second in Citi’s latest premium mass survey, with those two casino operators accounting for circa 25 percent of shares each in the total wager observed.

The Citi analysts saw a total of 23 ‘whales’ – defined as players that have a bet size of HKD100,000 or more – wagering in Macau casinos during the July survey, up from the 19 such players observed in July 2023.

A total of 11, out of those 23 whales, were playing at casinos of Galaxy Entertainment and Sands China, according to the survey. For Sands China, the duo observed two Japanese whales at its property Plaza, where they were betting HKD100,000 and HKD200,000, respectively, within its Apex gaming room, a high-limit play zone.

“To our surprise, we ran into a HKD1 million whale for the second consecutive month (before 2024, we ran into HKD1 million whales only five times since since our Whale Watch started in January 2018),” the analysts remarked.

Citi also noted that it had seen a wider use of ‘smart’ gaming tables across the high-limit and grind mass baccarat play zones in properties promoted by Galaxy Entertainment, Sands China and Wynn Macau Ltd.

According to the institution, those included : all “43 tables” at the Pavilion South room – a high-limit play area at Galaxy Macau; all “18 tables” at the Apex gaming room at Plaza, as well as 73 smart gaming tables located at the grind mass area of Venetian Macao, both properties run by Sands China; and six of the 32 gaming tables at the Wynn Encore casino, within the Wynn Macau property located in downtown Macau peninsula.