Strong summer seasonality has prompted a better than expected start to the month for Macau’s gaming operators, with August GGR tracking 8% higher than in July and 20% higher than the same month in 2017 according to brokerage Sanford C Bernstein.
In a Monday note, analysts Vitaly Umansky, Zhen Gong and Kelsey Zhu said that Macau’s average daily rate (ADR) in the week from 6 to 12 August was MOP$879 million, pushing month-to-date (MTD) GGR to MOP$1.55 billion.
“Strength in GGR continued despite a tropical storm hitting Macau during the weekend, largely due to strong summer seasonality,” they said.
“VIP hold rate came down week-on-week, but MTD was above normal (at 3.0% to 3.1%). Mass GGR was likely up high single digit month-to-month, while VIP volume was likely up mid-single digit month-to-month.
Bernstein is predicting August GGR of between MOP$26.1 billion and MOP$26.6 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of between 15% and 17%.
Macau’s gaming revenue has exhibited signs of slowing down over the past two months with both June and July GGR coming in below expectations. Nevertheless, July’s 10.3% year-on-year growth to MOP$25.33 billion completed two full years of consecutive year-on-year monthly growth.
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