In Macau, industry experts have reportedly predicted that aggregated gross gaming revenues for December are on track to post a year-on-year increase of between 4% and 6% and bring the monthly tally to around $2.4 billion.

According to a report from GGRAsia, the forecast means that the over 30 casinos in the former Portuguese enclave could be about to post five consecutive months of year-on-year growth in aggregated gross gaming revenues after recording some 26 months of declines up to August.

“According to our industry sources, based on gaming play for the first 26 days of December, gross gaming revenues in Macau for the month are estimated to be tracking at just under plus 5% year-on-year, [which is] a deceleration from last week’s plus 10% estimate,” read an advisory note from ratings agency Telsey Advisory Group.

Macau’s casinos saw their aggregated gross gambling revenues for August improve by 1.1% year-on-year, which broke the 26 months of declines, while a 7.4% swell was reported for September before October’s figure went up by 8.8%. These were all surpassed last month by a 14.4% boost to approximately $2.4 billion, which means that the industry has already brought in roughly $25.5 billion during the first eleven months of 2017.

“This assumes an electronic games estimate for December, which puts monthly gross gaming revenues at $2.4 billion,” read a statement from Telsey Advisory Group analysts David Katz and Brian Davis.

Christopher Jones from the Buckingham Research Group Incorporated reportedly told GGRAsia that average daily aggregated gross gaming revenues in Macau for the eight days up to December 26 stood at $73.47 million, which amounted to a total of around $1.91 billion and reflected “a slight slowdown from the prior week level of $77.34 million”.

“We would attribute the week-to-week moderation to seasonality and the addition of an extra weekday versus last week,” said Jones. “Looking forward, we are maintaining our 4% to 6% gross gaming revenues growth outlook for December with an expectation of a strong finish to the month going into western New Years.”

Jones reportedly explained that his firm was maintaining its previous estimate of a 9% increase year-on-year in fourth-quarter aggregated gross gaming revenues with “expectations for mass-market gross gaming revenues to increase in the 11% to 12% range and for VIP to be flat to minus 1%”.

 

The headline has been updated to change 2017 to 2016