Macau: JP Morgan predicts October GGR of US$2.30bn

Analysts have forecast that October will see the best monthly performance since January 2020.

Macau.- JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) says that Macau’s GGR could reach MOP18.5bn (US$2.30bn) in October. That implies a 72 per cent recovery compared to October 2019 and would be the best monthly performance since January 2020 (MOP22.13bn), when the Covid-19 pandemic began

Based on the institution’s assessments, GGR for the first 23 days of October is estimated at MOP14.6bn, equating to MOP635m daily. The note indicates that last week’s GGR returned to a normalised rate of MOP575m daily. The start of the month included October Golden Week holiday, which ran from September 29 to October 6 and included the Mid-Autumn Festival and China’s National Day celebrations.

In its Tuesday note, JP Morgan said the third week of October saw a rebound in GGR, which was “not surprising, but still assuring” and that the month was “quite comfortably” on track to hit a post-pandemic high. Analysts DS Kim, Mufan Shi, and Selina Li said there was a rise of over 100 per cent in mass-market play and a recovery of approximately 25 per cent in VIP gambling.

Macau’s GGR for September was down 13.2 per cent month-on-month from MOP17.21bn (US$2.13bn) to MOP14.94bn (US$1.85bn). However, GGRT was up 404.2 per cent year-on-year. Cumulatively, Macau’s GGR for the first nine months of 2023 was MOP128.95bn, up 305.3 per cent compared to the same period in 2022.