The casino hotspot of Macau reportedly had a great Chinese New Year by chalking up ‘better than expected’ aggregated gross gaming revenues for the seven-day period of approximately $289.8 million.

According to a report from Inside Asian Gaming, this is the assessment of global investments research firm Sanford C Bernstein Limited after the enclave’s average daily aggregated gross gaming revenues for the first week of February hit $41.4 million. The source detailed that this figure represented a rise of 28% year-on-year while also being some 63% higher than the same period in January.

Recent reversal:

Macau is home to some of the world’s largest and most prestigious casinos including the iconic Casino Grand Lisboa venue from SJM Holdings Limited as well as Melco Resorts and Entertainment Limited’s 1,600-room Studio City Macau development. However, the former Portuguese enclave reportedly saw its average daily aggregated gross gaming revenues for the initial nine days of 2022 drop by a little over 9% month-on-month to about $33.12 million.

Comprehensive complications:

But Sandford C Bernstein Limited analyst Vitaly Umansky has reportedly divulged that this situation improved over the Chinese New Year week due to strong mass-market volumes and higher VIP holds despite the eventual week-long finishing tally being some 63% lower than the same period in pre-pandemic 2019. The specialist purportedly moreover explained that this recent improvement was all the more impressive as it came despite the presence of ongoing travel impediments put in place following coronavirus outbreaks in Hong Kong and the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai.

Impressive improvements:

Macau chalked up January aggregated gross gaming revenues of about $790.2 million, which equated to a drop of 20.9% year-on-year, but is now reportedly sitting on an estimated $249 million in receipts for the first week of February alone. Umansky purportedly disclosed that this most recent performance came as a result of a between 50% and 55% boost in the city’s mass-market casino business as well as a swell in its median VIP hold to over 75%.

Optimistic opinion:

Nevertheless, Amanda Cheng, Livy Lyu and DS Kim from American investment bank JPMorgan Chase and Company reportedly suggested that the average spend of tourists who visited Macau over the course of the Chinese New Year holiday period could have well sextupled due to longer lengths of stay given the ample availability of rooms at ‘cheap rates’ in addition to the ‘stronger recovery of the premium-mass segment’.

Reportedly read a statement from the JPMorgan Chase and Company trio…

“It is worth flagging as it proves in a way that the in-house premium/high-end business was very much intact despite the junket fall-out and no negative spill-over was seen at premium-mass or direct VIPs.”

Friendly forecast:

Inside Asian Gaming predicted that Macau could now well go on to record aggregated gross gaming revenues for February of up to $1 billion, which would equate to a swell of up to 26% month-on-month but still sit in the region of 67% lower than the roughly $3.1 billion it chalked up for same month in 2019.