Macau’s casinos have quickly recovered from a slower January, with February’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) rising 4.4% year-on to MOP$25.37 billion (US$3.13 billion).
The uptick comes on the back of strong visitation through Chinese New Year, which provided a welcome boost after Asia’s gaming hub experienced its first annual decline in 29 months in January, when GGR fell 5% compared to the prior year period.
According to analysts, the increase was built off the back of mass, estimated to have grown in the low double digits – offsetting a probable year-on-year decline in the VIP segment.
Encouragingly, according to Union Gaming’s Grant Govertsen, the increasing tendency of high-end players to plan their Macau trips outside of peak holiday periods is contributing to the effect of “smoothing out what used to be sharp peaks in GGR trends as the volatility inherent in this business segment becomes less meaningful relative to when VIP accounted for ~75% of GGR vs. only ~45% today.
“As such, the trends seen over the more recent holiday periods, including this CNY, are in line with our call that the traditional peak holiday periods should become less ‘peaky’ than ever on a go-forward basis.”
Early predictions for March have GGR coming in at between -2% and +2% year-on-year.
RelatedPosts
