Macau’s September casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) declined 12.7 percent month-on-month, to MOP17.25 billion (US$2.15 billion), according to a Tuesday announcement from the local regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
It was the lowest monthly GGR tally year-to-date, and the lowest since September last year.
Judged year-on-year, the result increased by 15.5 percent from the MOP14.94 billon in September 2023.
In early September this year, tourism and general travel to Macau, along with some non-gaming services at the city’s casino resorts, were disrupted by the passage of a super typhoon with the moniker “Yagi”.
The latest monthly GGR figure took such Macau revenue for the first nine months this year to MOP169.36 billion, up 31.3 percent on the prior-year period.
Banking institution Citigroup said in a recent note after its September survey of Macau gaming floors, that the market had seen the number of number of ‘whales’ – defined as players that have a bet size of HKD100,000 or more – and the amount wagered by them so far this year, “exceed” the levels seen in full-year 2023.
JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd said in a Tuesday memo after the September GGR result, that it was “actually better than feared”.
While the monthly tally was “the lowest GGR so far in 2024, the print at least came in slightly better than feared (+1 percent versus the consensus of MOP17.06 billon) and suggests the bar of expectation remains pretty low,” wrote analysts DS Kim, Mufan Shi and Selina Li.
Carlo Santarelli of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc said in a note after the September result: “The 21.9 percent decline, relative to 2019, compared to our pre-month forecast of -18.8 percent and recent checks in the range of -18 percent to -22 percent, relative to September of 2019.”
Vitaly Umansky of Seaport Research Partners, stated in a memo, that for October, “indications are that Golden Week,” a mainland China holiday running from October 1 to 7 inclusive, “will be strong this year.”
He added: “We forecast October GGR to be MOP21.5 billion (US$2.68 billion), +10.3 percent year-on-year (+24.6 percent month-on-month).”
(Updated 10.39pm, Oct 1)
