Last month reportedly saw the over 30 casinos in Macau chalk up an 8.3% decrease year-on-year in aggregated gross gaming revenues to just over $2.91 billion to leave the comparable four-month tally some 2.4% lower at slightly above $12.34 billion.

Annual slump:

According to a report citing official figures from the enclave’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, the most recent result represents an 8.7% decline when compared with March’s aggregated figure of $3.19 billion while being some 7% below February’s figure of $3.14 billion.

Accurate prediction:

GGRAsia reported that financial services firm, Nomura Instinet LLC, had declared late last month that it expected Macau’s aggregated gross gaming revenues for April to be between 3% and 8% lower than the $3.18 billion recorded for the same 30-day period in 2018. The Japanese firm purportedly also predicted that positive growth will only resume once the city of approximately 653,000 inhabitants ‘laps the tough +28% comp in April.’

Labor Day boost:

However, today marks the start of Macau’s Labor Day holiday and this has led several of the city’s five-star casino resorts to record improved advance bookings. The giant MGM Cotai venue from Hong Kong-listed operator, MGM China Holdings Limited, is among those expecting superior May results after the $3.4 billion property stated that room demand for the four-day period had been ‘very strong.’

Backing up these prospects, last week saw Maria Helena De Senna Fernandes from the Macao Government Tourism Office proclaim that her department is expecting to chalk up as much as a 20% rise year-on-year in Labor Day visitations. The official predicted that Macau could see as many as 469,200 tourists visiting its shores between today and May 4 with the largest constituent of this group likely to be those from the Chinese mainland.