Macau’s mass gaming revenues are expected to return to 100% of pre-COVID levels during the upcoming 1 October Golden Week as growth continues through the first weeks of August, according to investment bank JP Morgan.
In a Monday note detailing the results of their weekly channel checks, JP Morgan analysts DS Kim and Mufan Shi said GGR for the first 20 days of August was estimated at MOP$11.2 billion (US$1.39 billion) or MOP$560 million (US$69.3 million) per day, suggesting the past week saw improvement to MOP$570 million (US$70.6 million) per day.
This, they added, showed that the ongoing ramp in visitation – led by the base mass business – has “continued nicely” into the summer holidays.
“The print suggests mass GGR is run-rating at 90% to 95% of the pre-COVID level month-to-date,” Kim and Shi wrote.
“Now that Macau’s 2Q earnings are … over, we’ll go back to get a pulse on latest demands via monthly GGR releases and Golden Week stats such as October Golden Week, where we expect mass GGR to finally hit 100% recovery.
“We believe upbeat trends to continue from these prints despite macro concerns, which in turn should help realize remaining legs of consensus upgrades.”
All six of Macau’s concessionaires have now reported their 2Q23 results, universally reporting solid quarter-on-quarter improvements and in many improvements a return to pre-COVID mass gaming drop and turnover levels into July and August.
