Macau’s gross gaming revenues grew 16% during the second week of April in comparison to the first, aided by high hold in the VIP segment according to brokerage Bernstein.
In their weekly GGR report, Bernstein’s Vitaly Umansky, Kelsey Zhu and Louis Li estimate that the past week saw an average daily rate (ADR) of MOP$290 million per day – 16% higher than 1 to 6 April (MOP$250 million) and 8% higher than the March ADR of MOP$268 million, itself 66% lower than in April 2019 (MOP$786 million). Revenues in 2019 more comparable than last year given the impact of COVID-19.
“VIP daily average volume is estimated to be down 10% month-on-month with high VIP hold this month, and mass GGR is estimated to be down month-on-month in mid-single digits percentage,” the analysts said.
While ADR is up, Bernstein notes that visitation has been subdued versus March, with daily visitation during the Easter and Ching Ming Festival holiday period down month-on-month.
As a result, they have lowered their April GGR estimates which they expect to fall by a little over 60% compared with April 2019. For 2021 as a whole, it is expected that GGR will recover to 64% of 2019 levels with mass reaching close to 75% but VIP less than 50%.