Macau GGR up 32.4% in September
Macau has reported gross gambling revenue of MOP$5.88bn (US$733m) for September, up 32.4 per cent month-on-month.
Macau.- Macau’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) was up 32.4 per cent month-on-month in September, and up 166 per cent year-on-year, at MOP$5.88bn (US$733m). However, it was the second-lowest monthly GGR figure of 2021, after August.
The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau reported that despite the growth in GGR, the number of tourist arrivals was down mainly due to restrictions imposed in neighbouring Zhuhai in Guangdong province and a mandatory 14-day quarantine for inbound travel from Macau.
Macau has been affected by a new outbreak of Covid-19 cases which led the number of tourist arrivals to plummet by 70 per cent. Analysts at Bernstein Research predict that October’s Golden Week will now be weaker than expected. They expect the city to see a recovery later in the month and into November.
Analysts at JP Morgan Securities also believe expectations for the national holiday could be deeply affected by new countermeasures.
Macau’s GGR for the third quarter was MOP$18.76bn, down 26 per cent when compared to the previous quarter. Aggregate casino GGR for the first nine months of the year totals MOP$67.79bn, up 76 per cent year-on-year when compared to the MOP$38.61bn reached during the previous year period.
May remains the month with the highest GGR of the year to date, mainly thanks to the Labour Day break, when Macau’s Public Security Police reported that 165,500 tourists came to Macau.
Analysts believe Macau is unlikely to remove its travel restrictions for people coming from places beyond mainland China before 2022.
Macau to revise budget forecast due to low GGR
Ho Iat Seng, Macau’s chief executive, has said the city will have to revise its budget as he expects casino gross gaming revenue will fail to recover. One of the main problems according to Ho Iat Seng is that Macau has a low rate of vaccination with only 47 per cent fully vaccinated.
Morgan Stanley predicts that a recovery to pre-pandemic levels may now take until 2023 due to the “lower efficacy for certain vaccination” and the effect of the Delta variant.
