Macau’s six concessionaires saw their combined gross gaming revenues rise only slightly year-on-year, by around 1%, in the first three months of 2025 and only due to playing lucky in the VIP segment.
According to the summarized datasets of the six concessionaires as compiled by Deutsche Bank’s Carlo Santarelli, mass gaming revenues actually fell by 1% year-on-year in 1Q25, although this was offset by an 11% gain in VIP GGR. That’s despite total VIP volumes falling by 10%.
VIP hold of 3.38% was up 63bps compared with the same period in 2024.
Highlighting the otherwise slower than expected performance in the mass gaming segment was the fact that industry-wide margins fell 120bps year-on-year to 28.0%, albeit improved from 27.2% in the December 2024 quarter. Property EBITDA of HK$1.95 billion was also down 3.8% year-on-year.
Deutsche Bank noted that Melco, Galaxy and Sands China gained ground in VIP in Q1 while SJM, Galaxy and Melco claimed higher market share than previously in the mass segment.
While the March quarter was disappointing, there have been signs of life in recent weeks with analysts reporting a surprisingly strong May Golden Week that appears to have smashed all forecasts with GGR of more than MOP$1 billion per day. IAG’s discussions with operators during last week’s G2E Asia trade show seem to support those reports.
