VIP to outpace mass in Macau

Analysts said that VIP GGR growth is one of the highlights of Macau’s market during the second quarter.

Macau.- Union Gaming analysts said in a Thursday note that even though mass market is one of the reasons why gross gaming revenue (GGR) is going through recovery, it was VIP GGR that stands out during the second quarter of 2017.

The brokerage said that the second quarter of the year was the first time in almost six years that VIP growth of 30.8 percent outperformed mass market, which reported a 14.8 percent increase, AGBrief reported. During the three month period slot GGR also grew 15.8 percent, which means that the total GGR growth was 22 percent in 17Q2.

Union gaming also said that August GGR’s numbers are expected to be in the 20 percent range mainly because of the Typhoon Hato and Pakhar that affected last month’s operations, and September to post a record again.

On the other hand, analysts from Morgan Stanley revealed earlier this week that gaming gross revenue is expected to rebound sharply this week and in September. The bad weather conditions that affected the city last week could cause weaker GGR results but won’t affect the results in the long run. The storm results could end up showing a GGR of 18 percent increase year-on-year in August, but down from the 24 percent expected from previous estimations. Nevertheless, September GGR remains at 17 percent year-on-year increase, the news outlet said. On Friday, Macau’s Statistics and Census Service revealed that gross domestic product (GDP) increased 11.5 percent when compared to the previous year during the second quarter of 2017.