Macau GGR up 24.3% in May
Macau has reported gross gambling revenue of MOP10.45bn (US$1.31bn) for May, up 24.3 per cent when compared with the previous month.
Macau.- Macau’s Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) continues to improve, reaching MOP10.45bn (US$1.31bn) in May. That’s an increase of 24.3 per cent from April, when GGR was MOP10.4bn (US$1.3bn).
GGR was also up 492.2 per cent year-on-year and was the highest monthly revenue since the Covid-19 pandemic started.
Aggregate casino GGR for the first five months of the year totals MOP42.49bn, up 29 per cent year-on-year.
May’s numbers were fueled by the Labour Day break, when Macau’s Public Security Police reported that 165,500 tourists came to Macau.
According to the Macau Government Tourism Office, the first day of the Labour Day break set the highest daily volume of visitors since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, with 44,000 arrivals.
Macau’s GGR for the first nine days of May, including the Labour Day break, reached an average daily rate of MOP500m (US$75m).
During the Labour Day break, Macau hotels and guest houses registered an occupancy rate of 83.2 per cent. According to the MGTO, the rate was 34.6 percentage points better than that seen during the Chinese New Year holiday.
Morgan Stanley predicts Macau GGR in 2021 will reach US$16.3bn
Despite the improvement in the last three months, Morgan Stanley has cut its forecast for Macau gross gaming revenue (GGR) this year by 19 per cent to US$16.3bn.
Previously, analysts had said Macau GGR could reach MOP189bn (US$23.6bn), about 65 per cent of GGR in 2019. However, it’s lowered its forecast to just 45 per cent of 2019 levels, although that would still be an improvement of 115.4 per cent on 2020.
Morgan Stanley said it had revised its forecast due to the new rise in Covid-19 cases in Asia and the delay in easing travel restrictions between Hong Kong and Macau.
Mainland China remains the only country to have a largely quarantine-free travel bubble with Macau, but the city has resumed a 14-day quarantine for travellers from one district in Guangdong province due to a rise in Covid-19 cases.
