Gaming | March revenues likely to disappoint

According to research firm Sanford C. Bernstein, Macau’s gross gaming revenues for March are likely to disappoint those who saw February’s 0.1 percent decline as a sign of changing tides, with the firm forecasting a year-on-year decline of between 18 and 24 percent.
Last month Macau’s gaming sector was inches away from breaking its 21-month streak of declining revenues. Its recorded decline of just 0.1 percent, representing the smallest decrease since the downturn began in mid-2014, was attributed by analysts to a positive surge in number of Chinese New Year visitors and the growth of the mass market.
However, a Bernstein report issued this week says that it expects March’s gross gaming revenue to decline by as much as 24 percent when compared with the same month last year.
Though based solely on the performance of the first week of March, the research firm notes that average daily revenue for this month is already down by 21 percent from February’s average.
Bernstein analysts wrote in the report that, “the estimate for the first week of March is disappointing as we were projecting March to decline by around 10 percent year-on-­year,” as cited by GGR Asia.
The Telsey Advisory Group made similar observations, saying that the month-to-date figures were “somewhat worse than expected,” and estimated a decline of up to 24 percent for the whole month.
Meanwhile, according to gaming news website Calvin Ayre, Japanese analysts Daiwa are standing by their previous forecast of a 13 percent decline year-
on-year, insisting that March is traditionally a weak month for revenues.
Separately, the persistently declining gaming revenues are continuing to take their toll on employment in the casino sector. The Times reported earlier this week that the number of job vacancies in the gaming industry in the fourth quarter of last year declined from 841 to 462, with no postings for casino dealers. DB

Casinos bounce back as gamblers ditch China stocks

The wheel of fortune is favoring Macau casino operators over brokerages as gambling revenue stabilizes and turbulence in the equity market weighs on turnover. Shares of Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. and Sands China Ltd. are among the biggest gainers in Hong Kong in 2016, after being the two worst performers over the previous two years, while Citic Securities Co. and Haitong Securities Co. are down more than 10 percent. The two-year slump in gambling revenue that was sparked by an anti-corruption campaign coincided with China’s biggest-ever bull market in equities. Bloomberg