Macau’s gaming revenue grew 12.1% year-on-year in May to MOP$25.5 billion.
The figure represents 22 consecutive months of GGR growth for Asia’s gaming hub despite coming in slightly below consensus on the back of weaker mass. It was also marginally down on the MOP$25.7 billion in revenue Macau’s gaming industry raked in during April.
According to Union Gaming’s Grant Govertsen, Macau mass was likely negatively impacted by police raids on multiple currency exchange shops in China near the Gongbei border gate on the weekend of 12 and 13 May 2018.
“To date, we believe most of the shops remain closed,” Govertsen said. “To the extent these currency exchanges were being used to convert RMB into HKD to be used at the tables in Macau, we believe this would primarily just impact the lower tiers of mass and, importantly, would view the setback as temporary as workarounds typically pop up within a few weeks.
“Nothing has changed recently with respect to visitors’ ability to use Union Pay (or other bank cards) so this remains a viable alternative for mass customers, especially premium mass.
“Finally, it is also important to keep in mind that there could have been no external factors that affected the deceleration relative to consensus and that the market could simply be taking a breather after 22 months of growth (and even longer for mass). Simply put, the conversations we’ve had in recent days and weeks with the Macau Big 6 suggest continued bullishness.”
