Macau’s gross gaming revenues fell slightly over the past week, but a strong start to the month has May still well on track to exceed April’s industry-wide revenue results and near US$2 billion, according to investment bank JP Morgan.
Providing their weekly Macau channel checks, JP Morgan analysts DS Kim and Mufan Shi said GGR for the first 21 days of May was sitting at MOP$11.1 billion (US$1.38 billion) or a run-rate of MOP$528 million (US$65 million) per day – despite the past week having weakened to around MOP$450 million (US$56 million) per day. While the past seven days are lower than April’s average run-rate of MOP$491 million (US$61 million) per day, the analysts note the potential margin for error in the weekly checks and suggest focusing on monthly and month-to-date trends rather than a single week.
“By segment, the month-to-date print suggests mass demand is run-rating at around 85% of pre-COVID levels while VIP is at around 25% recovery, both of which are well above 67%/15% recovery rates during 1Q23,” they said.
“For the full month, we expect May GGR to print yet another post-pandemic high of MOP$15.5 billion (US$1.92 billion), implying a 60% recovery on headline GGR led by 85% mass recovery.”
As previously reported by IAG, Macau GGR climbed to MOP$14.72 (US$1.82 billion) in April, up from MOP$12.74 billion (US$1.58 billion) in March and continuing an upward trend since the easing of most remaining border restrictions on 8 January.
