Gaming revenue falls 21.4 pct in lull ahead of CNY

According to analysts revenue has stabilized, helped by new resorts that opened last year, like Studio City (pictured)

Macau’s casino revenue fell 21.4 percent in January amid a lull before this month’s Lunar New Year holiday that’s traditionally a popular period for Chinese gamblers to visit the region.
Gross gaming revenue fell to MOP18.7 billion (USD2.3 billion), a 20th straight month of decline, according to data released by Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. That compares with the median estimate of a 22 percent drop from six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The decline was 21.2 percent in December.
January tends to be a weaker month before the peak Lunar New Year season starting Feb. 8, when the majority of mass market Chinese gamblers visit over the week-long public holiday, said Billy Ng, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, before the data was released. Revenue has stabilized, helped by new resorts that opened last year targeting middle-class Chinese, he said.
Casino revenue had plunged 49 percent last February, after a crackdown on corruption by China’s government kept Chinese high-rollers away from Macau while the country’s slowing economy hurt the mass market segment. Gross gaming revenue in Macau fell 34 percent for the full year in 2015, a second straight year of declines. Daniela Wei, Bloomberg

vip gamblers lose dominant hand

High rollers from mainland China – a mainstay of Macau’s casino industry for over a decade – have seen their importance diminish amid Beijing’s crackdown on internal corruption and a slowing economy.  Macau’s gross gaming revenue fell in January as the gap between high rollers and the mass market segment continued to narrow. Revenue from mass-market gamblers is expected to surpass VIPs starting from the second quarter of 2016, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Billy Ng. The forecast comes at a time when junket promoters are reportedly closing their VIP rooms.