GGRAsia – U.S. 3Q commercial gaming 81pct pre-virus levels: AGA

U.S. 3Q commercial gaming 81pct pre-virus levels: AGA

Nov 17, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Commercial gaming operations in the United States – including land-based casinos, sports betting and iGaming – achieved in the third quarter, revenue equal to 81 percent of the industry’s pre-Covid-19 levels in the same three months of 2019, says the American Gaming Association (AGA).

Excluding sports betting and iGaming, third-quarter revenue linked to commercial gaming operations in the United States was around 78 percent of the achieved a year earlier.

By comparison, in the Macau market, third-quarter casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) was only 6.9 percent of that achieved a year earlier.

In the duopoly casino market in Singapore, Las Vegas Sands Corp, operator of Marina Bay Sands, recorded third-quarter casino revenue there at US$197 million, only 35.6 percent of the US$553 million achieved in the equivalent three months a year earlier.

At the U.S. firm’s Singapore market rival, Resorts World Sentosa, run by Genting Singapore Ltd, third-quarter gaming revenue was SGD212.9 million (US$158.4 million), versus only SGD6.5 million in the three months to June 30. Judged year-on-year, gaming revenue was down 41.0 percent, from the nearly SGD360.8 million achieved a year earlier.

The U.S. third-quarter US$9.04-billion tally for commercial gaming revenue included US$5.87 billion in slot GGR – a figure down 19.3 percent year-on-year; and US$1.57 billion in table revenue, a decline of 31.2 percent from the prior-year quarter.

The U.S. commercial gaming aggregate – i.e., excluding revenue from tribal gaming operations – encompassed a US$352.3-million contribution from sports betting, a product category not available in Macau casinos and some other Asian casino jurisdictions including Singapore.

The U.S. quarterly commercial revenue total also featured US$435.0 million from iGaming, a category not found in most Asian markets.

“While these quarterly results are promising, the reality is a full recovery is dependent on continued public health measures to control prevalence rates,” said Bill Miller, AGA president and chief executive, referring to Covid-19 in prepared remarks in a press release on the U.S. third quarter.

According to the association, more than 100 U.S. casinos reopened between July and September, after temporary closures as Covid-19 countermeasures, with 902 commercial and tribal casinos – amounting to 90.8 percent of the total – operational by the end of the third quarter.

Macau casinos were only shuttered as a precaution for two weeks in February, but since they returned to operation, regional travel restrictions have dramatically reduced the tally of visitors to the city.

In Macau, judged by casino revenue alone, the third quarter generated just under MOP4.89 billion (US$611.7 million), a figure down 93.1 percent year-on-year.

Even accounting for revenue in the third quarter from other categories of games permitted in Macau – including horse race betting and sports lottery products – the GGR tally was only just under MOP5.08 billion or only 7.2 percent of such revenue in the third quarter, 2019.