Investment bank JP Morgan has estimated Macau’s gross gaming revenues for the first 10 days of September at MOP$4.3 billion (US$532 million) or MOP$430 million (US$53.2 million) per day – considerably lower than the MOP$550 million (US$68.1 million) per day of recent months due primarily to the extreme weather events that have lashed the region.
As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, the arrival of Super Typhoon Saola on 1 September saw Macau’s casinos ordered closed and most border entry points temporarily shut down, while heavy rainfall in the week since has also impacted visitation.
According to JP Morgan’s DS Kim, Mufan Shi and Selina Li, September will be a “month to forget” following the recent trend of incremental month-on-month improvements, with GGR now tipped to decline by 15% to 20% versus August to between MOP$14 billion and MOP$14.5 billion (US$1.73 billion and US$1.76 billion).
Nevertheless, the analysts said the market will “likely look through this print (which was dragged by extreme weather), while all eyes will be on Golden Week anyway by the time the September GGR is out.”
It remains unclear at this stage how big Golden Week will be for Macau’s casinos, they added, although casinos will almost certainly be booked out, leaving the question of who will stay and how much they will play.
“We thus can only have some reliable color during the week, not before,” JP Morgan said.
Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau previously reported Macau-wide GGR of MOP$17.21 billion (US$2.12 billion) in August.
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