Galaxy Entertainment Group has indeed jumped into second place in the Macau gross gaming revenue league table for July. That’s the league table the operators like to dismiss as misleading—unless they happen to be climbing the charts.
Galaxy’s rise is due to two key factors. The first is the major contribution from its new Cotai resort Galaxy Macau, which opened in mid-May. Galaxy Macau grossed more in July in the mass and VIP segments than its Cotai next-door-neighbour The Venetian Macao (though not more than The Venetian and Four Seasons combined). The second factor in Galaxy’s rise is the continuing strong performance of the VIP business at Galaxy’s StarWorld Hotel & Casino on Macau peninsula and the early strong showing of the high roller trade at Galaxy Macau. That’s in the context of a Macau VIP market that is making an overweight contribution to the 48% year on year market growth seen in July GGR.
Galaxy as a group managed HK$4.31* billion in gross gaming revenue in July according to unofficial figures. A total of HK$2.13 billion of that came from StarWorld, of which the bulk—HK$1.99 billion (93%)—came from VIP baccarat. Galaxy Macau’s GGR was HK$1.84 billion—of which HK$1.49 billion (81%) was from high roller table play.
Market-wide Las Vegas Sands Corp is doing best of all the six operators in the higher-margin mass market, producing HK$1.15 billion GGR in the mass market across its three properties. But although nearly half (44%) of The Venetian’s business is VIP baccarat (HK$0.72 billion out of HK$1.63 billion total GGR) it was still outplayed on total GGR by Galaxy Macau—the property that analysts regard currently as Sands China’s most serious rival on Cotai. However when the revenues of Sands’ the Four Seasons, a specialist property mainly catering for high rollers is factored in, that adds another HK$0.62 billion to Sands’ Cotai tally.
If the Macau revenue race were an Olympic event, the commentators would now be saying that MGM Macau is “losing touch with the pack”. The only other one-property operator Wynn (if you count Encore as integral to Wynn Macau) managed to grab nearly twice the GGR of MGM Macau. And MGM’s laggardly performance isn’t redeemed by being overweight in the mass market. Only 20% of MGM’s GGR came from mass gaming in July (HK$0.36 billion out of HK$1.78 billion). No wonder Grant Bowie the CEO of MGM Macau was keen to brief the media recently about the progress of MGM China’s application to the Macau government for a new resort on Cotai.
The July Macau GGR league table is:
- SJM…………………………………HK$6.43 billion
- Galaxy……………………………..HK$4.31 billion
- Melco Crown Entertainment…HK$3.46 billion
- Wynn…………………………… …HK$3.42 billion
- Las Vegas Sands Corp…………HK$3.15 billion
- MGM Macau……………………….HK$1.78 billion
*All figures are rounded up to one decimal place.
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