Macau records extraordinary swell in February gross gaming revenues

The casino hotspot of Macau is reportedly continuing to recover from the devastating impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and last month saw its aggregated gross gaming revenues rise by an impressive 135.6% year-on-year to reach in excess of $915.21 million.

According to a report from Inside Asian Gaming citing official figures from the enclave’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau regulator, the notable increase is largely down to the fact that every one of the almost 40 casinos in Macau shut their doors for 15 days in February of last year owing to the outbreak of the highly-infectious contagion. In an attempt to more accurately evaluate the situation and the source went on to detail that last month’s result was some 8.8% below the just over $1 billion chalked up for January and around 71.2% lower than the about $3.17 billion recorded for the same 28-day period in 2019.

Pandemic panacea:

Macau has now reportedly managed to generate slightly in excess of $1.92 billion in aggregated gross gaming revenues since the start of the year, which is 39.2% lower than the same two-month period last year and a whopping 69.5% down on the $6.29 billion that had been chalked up by this stage in 2019. Nevertheless, the daily rate for February was purportedly higher by roughly one percent month-on-month to $32.66 million to further raise hopes that the year-end figure may be able to top 2020’s coronavirus-devastated $7.56 billion finishing tally.

Visitation vacuum:

In order to further aid comparisons and the source asserted that February featured three fewer days than its immediate predecessor and that this latter month had moreover seen Macau record its highest aggregated gross gaming revenues since the around $2.76 billion logged for January of 2020. However, it purportedly furthermore pronounced that the first month of this year had witnessed a substantially weaker seven-day Chinese New Year holiday period as the number of foreign holidaymakers travelling into the former Portuguese enclave tumbled by 65.3% to just 90,615 owing to a fresh outbreak of coronavirus in neighboring China and Beijing’s subsequent decision to issue several ‘stay in place’ orders.

Future focused:

For its part and GGRAsia cited a report from JP Morgan analysts Derek Choi and DS Kim as declaring that Macau’s aggregated gross gaming revenues figure for February had been a ‘bit underwhelming’ but that this would not negatively impact their own full-year forecast. The financial services giant purportedly told this source that the city’s casino market is almost certain to benefit from an expected rise in mass-market play as coronavirus-related movement and quarantine restrictions begin being lifted for those travelling from mainland China and Hong Kong.