Macau recorded gross gaming revenue of MOP$25.95 billion in March, an increase of 22.2% year-on-year.
The results comfortably beat consensus, which had March GGR pegged at around 17% growth, and sees cumulative revenue for the first three months of the year come in at +20.5% over the same period in 2017.
According to Union Gaming, GGR sharply accelerated towards the back end of the month after slowing down due to the National People’s Congress (NPC) meetings in Beijing that ran from 5 to 20 March. Union Gaming analyst Grant Govertsen said that 2Q18 should also see growth of around 20% including +21.5% in April, +18.7% in May and +20.0% in June.
“It is likely that the VIP growth rate will continue to outpace the mass/slots growth rate, although mass/slots is likely still growing at least in the teens while VIP is growing in the mid-20% range,” Govertsen said. “We will get a slightly clearer picture of segment trends in mid-April when the DICJ releases the quarterly metrics.”
Brokerage Bernstein is tipping April growth in the mid-to-high teens.
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