Casino sector to ‘unlikely’ reach MOP180 GGR

Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng doubts that gross gaming revenue (GGR) will reach MOP180 billion this year.

Ho was speaking yesterday at the Policy Address Press Conference.

The government’s forecasts for this year are at only MOP130 billion.

However, the Macau government’s contracts with the six gaming concessionaires stipulated that an additional 20% of its pledge in the non-gaming investment will be required if gaming revenues recover to MOP180 billion this year.

“As for the MOP180 billion GGR, I do not know what the annual GGR for this year will be like [but], I can tell you, MOP180 billon is not likely to be achieved,” said Ho.

Until October, the casino sector has already generated a GGR of MOP148.4 billion. This comes after October figures hit another post-pandemic record high of MOP19.5 billion, buoyed by the National Day Golden Week in early October.

Meanwhile, Macau has recorded a slight slowdown in its casino floor revenues during the Grand Prix, with Citigroup analysts noting that “some big players avoid[ed] going to Macau” during the races over the weekend.

The city’s GGR for the first 12 days of November may have reached MOP6.6 billion, which is a daily run-rate of MOP543 million for the past week.

Analysts George Choi and Ryan Cheung said the figure is 3% lower than the first five days of the month.

However, its November GGR forecast of MOP16 billion remains unchanged, around 70% of pre-pandemic levels. LV