Macau gaming revenues appear to be steadily on the mend, with October’s results tracking well above September’s at averages of MOP230 million to 245 million a day.
Through the first 26 days of the month, win totaled MOP6 billion (US$751.8 million), according to a note to investors from analysts with JP Morgan. That’s a 73 percent decline compared to October 2019 but a sizable improvement over September’s minus-90 percent and light years from the declines of 95 percent and more experienced through the spring and summer.
The JPMorgan group attributed the improvement to the wider availability of tourist visas in mainland China, which they said is boosting visitation from provinces beyond neighboring Guangdong.
Visitation over the latter part of the month improved to 35,000-40,000 a day, well above September’s average of 15,000 and around five times’ the average in August, before the Individual Visit Scheme, as the tourist visa system is known, was reinstated nationwide.
For the year through September, Macau welcomed just over 4 million arrivals, a trickle compared to 2019’s 40 million. But that was before the Covid-19 virus was first discovered in China last December and the mainland went into a lockdown that halted virtually all cross-border travel with Macau for most of this year, cutting off the city’s world-leading casino market from its principal source of gamblers.
Everything else being equal, with visitation continuing to rise, analysts expect the gaming revenue rebound will continue. JPMorgan, for one, is forecasting November’s total to finish at minus 60 percent-65 percent year on year and December to finish at minus 50 percent-55 percent.
