JP Morgan forecasts August to hit another high in gaming revenue

Analysts from the financial services firm JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited are forecasting that August will break the gross gaming revenue (GGR) record that was only set in July.

According to a report issued by the brokerage company about the first 13 days of this month, the local gaming market operators should have made some MOP7.2 billion, a sum that equates to a daily average of MOP553 million.

The report by the analysts DS Kim, Mufan Shi, and Selina Li also notes “Last week’s GGR increased 7% week-on-week to MOP570 million-plus per day, compared to the approximately MOP530 million in the past few weeks, reflecting recovery from the bad weather,” they said, referring to the heavy rainfall and threats of typhoon warnings. Most recently, the typhoons passing in the area did not directly affect Macau. Macau’s last signal 8 was raised in mid-July during the passage of typhoon Talim.

According to JP Morgan analysts, even more important than the forecast of another record month is the fact that mass GGR has recovered to become between 90 to 95% of pre-pandemic levels. They again suggested that they “expect it to ramp up to 100-percent-plus recovery by October.”

July has so far been the best month for casinos in Macau since January 2020, with a monthly result of MOP16.662 billion (+9.6% from the previous month).

A week ago, the same brokerage company stated that, based on the results of the first six days of the month, revenues were slightly lower than in July, but July results were partially offset by the typhoon Talim disruption.

Macau also saw a record-breaking result in the number of visitors entering the region on a single day (139,000), with visitor arrivals over the weekend recording the highest average daily arrivals since 2020, and the hotel occupancy rate also exceeding 90%.