Following two months’ of comparative declines, Macau reportedly saw aggregated gross gaming revenues from its collection of over 35 casinos rebound last month courtesy of a 1.8% year-on-year increase to approximately $3.21 billion.

Trade war concerns:

According to a report, the May result comes amid growing investor concern that the ongoing China-United States trade war may well be hindering a rise in the value of Macau gaming stocks. Although the former Portuguese enclave purportedly has its own relationship with the World Trade Organization, it nevertheless remains as the only Chinese jurisdiction where casino gambling is legal and the continuing dispute is thought to be responsible for slowing consumer demand.

Mass-market advance:

GGRAsia cited official figures from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau as detailing that the city had seen a year-on-year decline in aggregated VIP gross gaming revenues for May while its mass-market sector had conversely recorded improved results.

Worsening words:

Japanese financial services firm Nomura Holdings Incorporated reportedly used a Sunday filing to describe May’s result as a ‘modest positive surprise’ that had come despite the ‘softening economic pace in China.’ Analysts, Brian Dobson, Daniel Adam and Harry Curtis, declared that ‘rhetoric around the trade dispute has worsened’ and that they now expected any future growth in Macau’s aggregated gross gaming revenues to be driven by ‘the underlying strength in mass demand.’

Long-term optimism:

Despite the May result, Deutsche Bank Securities Incorporated predicted that Macau’s annual gross gaming revenues for the whole of 2019 are likely to be only 1% higher year-on-year. Nevertheless, the brokerage’s, Steven Pizzella and Carlo Santarelli, used a similar Sunday dossier to maintain an earlier forecast that the city’s comparable results for all of 2020 would be higher by as much as 2.8%.