Macau\u2019s casino gaming<\/a><\/em><\/strong> revenue fell 8,5% in November, December started in the same way. According to analysts of Sanford C Bernstein, temporary restrictions on exit visas for Macau-bound travelers behind President Xi Jinping\u2019s impending visit this month had a strong impact. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe analysts said that gross gaming revenue through the first eight days of December was estimated to be a decline of 16% compared with December 2018 and 6% down on November revenue. As a result, they have revised their December numbers down from a previously estimated decline of between 8% and 11% to a decline of between 12% and 16%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe weakness in both segments is exacerbated by even tighter visa controls in preparation for the visit to Macau by China President Xi Jinping later in the month. Visa limitations\/restrictions on IVS and transit visas are impacting higher frequency higher-end players in both VIP and mass along with junket agents, which has led to significant declines in high end visitation and GGR,\u201d said the Monday note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mass is expected to be down low single digits year-on-year, while VIP volume is down in the low 30s percent, analysts Vitaly Umansky, Eunice Lee and Kelsey Zhu explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The visa control will extend Macau\u2019s gaming revenue decline in December. Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit Macau mid-month for the 20th anniversary of Macau\u2019s handover from Portugal.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The analysts said that gross gaming revenue through the first eight days of December was estimated to be a decline of 16% compared with December 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Macau's Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) experienced a significant decline in early December, estimated at 16% year-on-year, following an 8.5% drop in November. This downturn is primarily attributed to tightened visa controls impacting high-frequency VIP and mass market players, implemented in anticipation of President Xi Jinping's visit. Sanford C Bernstein analysts have consequently revised their December GGR forecasts downwards, projecting a 12-16% decline.","focusai_entities":"Sanford C Bernstein, Vitaly Umansky, Eunice Lee, Kelsey Zhu, President Xi Jinping","focusai_location":"Macau, China, Portugal","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (0.8), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (1.0), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Macau GGR Outlook?","query":"What are the long-term implications of China's increasing regulatory influence, as evidenced by these visa restrictions, on Macau's gaming market stability and GGR growth trajectory beyond the immediate impact of President Xi's visit?"},{"label":"Operator Strategy Shift?","query":"How are Macau's integrated resort operators adjusting their marketing and operational strategies, particularly for the VIP and premium mass segments, to mitigate the ongoing impact of tightened visa controls and geopolitical events?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,16338,163],"tags":[29,227,725,257,2054],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-east-asia-news","category-finance-news","tag-casino","tag-china","tag-ggr","tag-macau","tag-revenue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1469"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1475,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions\/1475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}