Macau’s mass market gross gaming revenue recovered to 93 percent of pre-COVID levels in July 2023, reaffirming the bullish outlook over Macau gaming, say analysts.
Analysis from JP Morgan indicates that Macau’s mass GGR recovery can be looked at in terms of 100 percent recovery in premium mass versus 80 percent in base mass. The investment bank notes that VIP recovery also edged up to 28 percent in July.
Macau reported MOP16.66 billion ($2.06 billion) in GGR in July, implying a daily run-rate of MOP537 million ($67 million) and recovering to 68 percent of pre-COVID levels. The future is ‘pretty respectable’ given the drag from Typhoon Talim in mid-July. In this way, JP Morgan analysts believe that Macau’s GGR run-rate has likely improved to MOP600 million ($74.8 million) per day in late July.
Citigroup also maintains its positive outlook for the Macau gaming industry, noting that Macau’s July GGR shows a daily run-rate for the final eight days of the month was MOP595 million, which is 14 percent higher than that of the week prior.
Analyst George Choi believes that Macau continues to appeal to higher-value visitors, as the bank notes that Macau hotels have been averaging 90 percent occupancy for the weekends over the past couple of weeks.
Choi also says that August is usually a seasonally strong month due to the summer holidays, noting that the month had the highest inbound tourists in 2019. Under these circumstances, Citigroup says that they ‘conservatively’ look for GGR to reach MOP17 billion ($2.12 billion) in the current month.
