The combined GGR recorded each day by Macau’s concessionaires plummeted to just MOP$20 million (US$2.5 million) from 1 to 10 July, impacted by the city’s growing COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent border restrictions, according to brokerage Bernstein.
In their weekly summary, Bernstein analysts Vitaly Umansky, Louis Li and Shirley Yang noted that the daily GGR level represented a 62% week-on-week decline and was also 97% lower than the average daily rate in July 2019 and 93% lower than July 2021. It was also 76% lower than June 2022 ADR.
As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, casino revenues will fall even further this week after the Chief Executive on Saturday ordered Macau’s casinos for seven days from 11 to 18 July.
Bernstein said the closure itself would not have any meaningful fundamental impact on GGR given that expectations for July were already low, but that it could weigh on trading sentiment.
“These measures are set for the GGR to plummet close to zero for the next few weeks,” the analysts said.
As such, they have lowered their forecast for July to be down 98% on July 2019 and 85% lower than June 2022 when Macau’s GGR was already at a 21-month low of MOP$2.48 billion (US$307 million). They also estimate August GGR to be 90% down on August 2019 and “could still be lower depending on length of Macau lockdown and travel restrictions.”
