Macau December average premium mass wager beating pre-pandemic figures, analysts say

Citigroup reported an increase compared to December 2019.

Macau.- Analysts at Citigroup say Macau’s average premium mass wager per player for December is running above that of 2019. The average minimum bet was HKD2,064, almost 12 per cent higher than December 2019’s survey figure of HKD1,834.

Wagers so far for December are down by around 3 per cent month-on-month at HKD9.2m (US$1.2m), with the number of premium mass players down 5 per cent. Analysts George Choi and Ryan Cheung attributed the strength to the presence of high-rolling players. Analysts identified a total of 20 whales (players who bet HKD100,000 (US$12,815) or more per hand).

“Players seem to be a lot less concerned than investors about the current state of the [Chinese] economy and the recent surge of respiratory illness in China, and they demonstrate their still-resilient luxury spending behaviour,” they wrote.