Gaming | February GGR to rebound following Lunar New Year visitor arrivals
Analysts are expecting slightly higher gaming revenue for February following the increase in visitor numbers to the region during the Lunar New Year.
Although the visitor arrivals fell short of what the government had initially expected, the figure was 25% higher than last year.
The seven-day Spring Festival Golden Week saw total tourist arrivals hit 113,699.
Pre-pandemic, February was typically one of the busiest months with the highest gaming revenue due to the weeklong holiday in mainland China.
Bernstein Research forecasts gross gaming revenue (GGR) for February will likely be up 29% from January.
January GGR dropped 20.3% month-to-month to MOP6.34 billion. This decline coincides with a series of new outbreaks in the neighbouring region, causing local authorities to impose strict border entry measures to deter the spread of Covid-19 variants.
Due to the outbreak, the government shortened the validity period of negative nucleic acid test (NAT) results for those entering Macau from Zhuhai in a bid to discourage tourists from traveling to Macau.
However, due to the stability of case numbers, Bernstein Research said that the average daily revenue from February 1 to 6 stood at MOP333 million compared with MOP205 million in January, as cited in Asia Gaming Brief.
The figure also represents a 60% increase compared to last year’s Lunar New Year.
Month-to-date GGR is MOP2 billion, as daily mass gaming revenues have surged between 50% and 55% from January.
Meanwhile, brokerage J.P Morgan described the Lunar New Year figures as “very respectable” considering there are “no more junket businesses,” which formerly accounts for 75% of the city’s VIP gaming revenue.
Recently, two junket moguls Alvin Chau and Levo Chan were arrested over illegal gambling, leading to gaming operators halting their agreements with junkets.
The Chief Executive has previously pointed out that junket operations have been declining over the past five years.
Recent official data shows that the number of gambling promoter licenses in the city has decreased nearly 50% in just one year, with only 46 junket licensees for the current year. 29 junkets are still awaiting licenses.
Meanwhile, analysts at J.P. Morgan said that mass GGR was likely over MOP300 million per day, a significant recovery when compared to the pre-pandemic figures during Lunar New Year (MOP500 million).
Average spending per visitor has also increased up to six times compared to 2019. According to analysts, this was due to the lack of tour groups in the SAR, as well as the longer length of stay per visit.
