Macau GGR up 4.4 pct in February

According to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, casino GGR was boosted by the Chinese New Year and rose last month.

Macau.- The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau revealed February’s casino figures for Macau and reported a 4.4% gross gaming revenue (GGR) during last month. The figure was helped by the Chinese New Year celebrations, which brought further visitors into the territory.

Despite the reported increase, Sanford C. Bernstein analysts Vitaly Umansky, Eunice Lee and Kelsey Zhu said in a Friday note that, “on a combined basis, January/February 2019 was flat year-on-year,” and added: “The January/February 2018 period saw year-on-year growth of 20 percent setting up a difficult year-on-year comparison.”

February’s result drove the market to a 0.5% decline on the accumulated 2019 year-on-year, down €5.47 billion.

Union Gaming Securities Asia analyst Grand Govertsen said: “The timing of Chinese New Year (CNY) should have, in theory, benefited this year. Based on our on-the-ground observations, and given robust foot traffic trends, it appears that mass market came through for operators and growth of this segment likely remains in the low double digits.

“VIP likely dipped into negative territory on a market-wide basis, although certainly mixed at the operator level. On a GGR/day basis, February was €98.5 million… or the highest level since the fall of 2014,” he added.