Casino crash – Gaming revenue may fall 23 pct or more

The Palazzo hotel-casino in Las Vegas

LVS back to the top in market share

Macau casinos revenue in October may fall more than 23 percent, suggests data compiled by MDT/Lusa, taking into account the revenue registered by SJM and MGM China.

According to this data, revenue from casinos this month shall not exceed 27.9 billion patacas (USD3.48 billion), reflecting a drop above 23 percent.

October’s fall is the fifth consecutive monthly gross gaming revenue (GGR) decline y-o-y; the cumulative 10-month results will settle in just over MOP303.5 billion (USD37.9 billion ), which still represents a 2 percent GGR’s growth compared to the same period last year.

The official data of October’s overall casinos revenue in Macau will only be known on Tuesday, November 4th, but the figures compiled by MDT/Lusa show that GGR will balance between 27.5 and 27.9 billion patacas, far below the MOP36.4 billion amassed in the same month the previous year.

The decline in casino revenues in October is over the estimates advanced in the middle of the month, as a result of a sharp decline in average daily GGR over the past 15 days. Just over a week ago, Secretary of Economy and Finance Francis Tam admitted publicly a predictable revenue decline of 15% plus from the 35 casinos operating in the MSAR.

“Despite being a traditionally strong 31-day month, what we are seeing is that there has been a clear and widespread revenue shortfall and this is common to all operators,” a source from the industry told Lusa news agency.

The same source added that for the whole 2014, revenues are expected to show a y-o-y decline, “albeit slight, meaningful.”

The MDT/Lusa report also indicates that Sands China regains the lead in terms of market share, followed closely by SJM (2nd), Galaxy (3rd), Melco (4th) and the pair MGM/Wynn with “a technical draw.”

MDT/Lusa Exclusive

Categories Business Macau