{"id":777037775,"date":"2026-02-09T07:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T10:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777037775"},"modified":"2026-04-21T14:35:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:35:47","slug":"macaus-pre-cny-ggr-slows-but-combined-jan-feb-still-tracking-solid-growth-citi-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macaus-pre-cny-ggr-slows-but-combined-jan-feb-still-tracking-solid-growth-citi-says","title":{"rendered":"Macau\u2019s pre-CNY GGR slows but combined Jan-Feb still shows solid growth, Citi says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Analyst say year-on-year momentum remains intact ahead of Chinese New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Macau.- Analysts at <strong>Citigroup<\/strong> have reported that Macau\u2019s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) has started to show signs of the customary <strong>pre-Chinese New Year (CNY) slowdown<\/strong>. Citi cited estimated GGR for the first eight days of February at MOP5.0bn (US$621m), equating to a daily run-rate of around MOP625m. That&#8217;s 14 per cent lower than <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/macau-ggr-rises-24-year-over-year-in-january\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">January<\/a> and 11 per cent below the daily rate seen in February 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>George Choi and Timothy Chau<\/strong> attributed the softer performance largely to seasonal gaming demand patterns ahead of CNY, which runs from February 15 to 23. Industry sources pointing to VIP volumes down 12\u201314 per cent month-on-month and mass GGR declining by 11\u201313 per cent. They emphasised that hold rates remain in line with normal expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Citi reaffirmed its <strong>February GGR forecast of MOP20.5bn (US$2.55bn)<\/strong>, a figure that would represent about 4 per cent year-on-year growth. For January-February combined, the bank maintained its projection at MOP 43.1bn, a 13.5 per cent increase compared with the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The<strong>&nbsp;Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ)&nbsp;<\/strong>reported that Macau\u2019s gross gaming revenue (GGR) was MOP22.63bn (US$2.81bn) in January. That\u2019s an <strong>increase of 24 per cent <\/strong>in year-on-year terms and 8.4 per cent from December 2025. It was the highest January total since 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, the director of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), said that the city expects a daily <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/mgto-expects-between-1-4-and-1-5-million-tourists-over-chinese-new-year-holiday\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">influx of 158,000 to 175,000 arrivals<\/a> during this year\u2019s Chinese New Year holiday period.\u00a0She said Macau is likely to receive between 1.4 and 1.5 million tourists over the nine-day Lunar New Year period. That would surpass\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/chinese-new-year-draws-1-31-million-visitors-to-macau\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">last year\u2019s tally of 1.31 million<\/a>\u00a0amid a longer holiday period and a 5 per cent yearly increase in Macau\u2019s budget for entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/01\/mgmcasino-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href='https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/mgm-china-reports-sustained-demand-in-macau-ahead-of-chinese-new-year'>MGM China reports sustained demand in Macau ahead of Chinese New Year<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Analyst say year-on-year momentum remains intact ahead of Chinese New Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":777031337,"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 casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) is experiencing a customary pre-Chinese New Year (CNY) slowdown, with Citigroup reporting a daily run-rate of MOP625m for early February, down from January. Despite this seasonal dip in VIP and mass GGR, analysts maintain their February GGR forecast of MOP20.5bn, projecting 4% year-on-year growth, and anticipate robust tourist arrivals for the holiday period.","focusai_entities":"Citigroup, George Choi, Timothy Chau, Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Macao Government Tourism Office, MGM China","focusai_location":"Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.7), operator_casino (1.0), marketing_crm (0.8), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"CNY GGR Impact","query":"How do the current pre-CNY GGR trends and tourist arrival forecasts for Macau compare to pre-pandemic seasonal patterns, and what implications does this have for full-year GGR projections?"},{"label":"Segment Performance Analysis","query":"Given the reported month-on-month declines in both VIP and mass GGR, what specific factors are driving these segment-level shifts, and how might operators adjust their player acquisition and retention strategies?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16338,24628,158],"tags":[25105,23908,257],"class_list":["post-777037775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-east-asia-news","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-slider-home","tag-chinese-new-year","tag-gaming-regulation","tag-macau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777037775","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\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777037775"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777037775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777037781,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777037775\/revisions\/777037781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777031337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777037775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777037775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777037775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}