Macau’s gaming revenue for the first nine days of June came in at around MOP$6.65 billion, or MOP$738 million per day, according to brokerage Sanford C Bernstein – down 2% year-on-year and 12% compared with May.
But Bernstein analysts are also tipping significant improvement for the remainder of the month, culminating in growth of between 3% and 5% when compared with June of 2018.
In its weekly channel check published Monday, Bernstein’s Vitaly Umansky, Eunice Lee and Kelsey Zhu said the year-on-year comparison was expected to ease over the coming weeks given the escalation of US-China trade tensions this time last year.
There is also some promise ahead, with the analysts hinting “we may see surprise on the upside if VIP rebounds (although not expecting a near term rebound). One area of potential high end GGR stabilization and renewed strength may come from a recovering credit cycle in China which may support VIP recovery in 2H.
“The recent heightened tension in US-China trade relations, however, casts uncertainty over the GGR recovery. If a trade war sustains over an extended period, it will likely pose as headwind to China’s economy and gaming spend from China’s high net worth individuals in Macau.”
Bernstein said it expects that Galaxy, Melco and SJM gained some market share over the first nine days of June.
