The first seven days of October reportedly saw the over 35 casinos in Macau record aggregated daily gross gaming revenues that were some 12% lower year-on-year at approximately $142.33 million.

According to a report from GGRAsia, this figure was detailed in a Tuesday note from Hong Kong-based brokerage firm JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited as part of its investigation into how the enclave’s casinos had fared during the so-called ‘Golden Week’ holiday period.

Manifold difficulties:

Annually observed over the course of the first seven days of October, the ‘Golden Week’ public holiday commemorates the establishment of the modern state of China and reportedly sees large numbers of tourists visit Macau in order to enjoy its plethora of entertainment and gambling facilities. The brokerage purportedly also detailed that last year’s aggregated daily gross gaming revenues figure had topped about $160.89 million with the most recent tally having been negatively impacted by a series of headwinds that included the ongoing Sino-American trade war as well as increased scrutiny over the city’s VIP junket market.

Concrete comparison:

GGRAsia reported that the note from JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited had moreover described this year’s ‘Golden Week’ period as ‘unexciting as well as expected’ before going on to declare that it had been up against a very ‘uneven base with a strong start’ 2018 comparison.

VIP letdown:

Fellow brokerage Nomura Securities Company Limited reportedly used its own Tuesday note to state that Macau had seen between an 8% and 10% rise year-on-year in aggregated daily gross gaming revenues from mass-market ‘Golden Week’ play although its VIP market for the same seven days had been ‘approximately 22% to 24% lower than the same period last year.’