Aggregated gross gaming revenues from the over 40 casinos in Macau are reportedly improving as October wears on due to the increased issuance by regional mainland Chinese authorities of group travel and Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) visas.

According to a report from Inside Asian Gaming, this is the opinion of the Asian branch of financial services giant JP Morgan Securities as the city’s casinos posted combined receipts of approximately $751.61 million for the first 26 days of October. The source explained that this equates to roughly $28.81 million per day, which is far above the $9.23 million mean recorded for September although around 73% lower when compared with the same period last year.

Recent recovery:

JP Morgan Securities reportedly also declared that its investigations suggest that the current daily rate had risen by some $5.63 million over the past week alone to about $30.69 million as a result of ‘improving traffic from non-Guangdong residents amid relatively wider availability of the IVS visa.’

Reportedly read a statement from JP Morgan Securities…

“Of note, our checks suggest some non-Guangdong provinces [such as] Fujian, Hunan and Jiangsu are now allowing walk-in visa applications over the counter although self-service kiosks are still not available, [which is] an improvement from the advance booking requirement prior to ‘Golden Week‘.”

Compatriot’s consensus:

For its part and international brokerage Sanford C Bernstein Limited reportedly detailed similar figures while adding that Macau’s daily aggregated gross gaming revenues for last week were around 66% lower when compared with the same period in 2019. This firm purportedly furthermore forecast that the city’s casinos would likely finish October having chalked up an overall drop of 73% year-on-year in combined business to slightly above $2.41 billion.

Coming convalescence:

Macau’s casinos have reportedly been struggling through the coronavirus pandemic and recently chalked up a sixth consecutive month in which their aggregated gross gaming revenues fell by at least 90% year-on-year. However, JP Morgan Securities purportedly moreover predicted that the city would soon see some respite with its final reckonings for November and December down by only 65% and 55% respectively.