Following two months of comparable declines and aggregated gross gaming revenues from the over 35 casinos in Macau reportedly recovered in September courtesy of an increase of 0.57% year-on-year to slightly over $2.73 billion.

According to a report from the Bloomberg news service citing official figures from the enclave’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, the result was some $15.72 million higher than for the same 30-day period in 2018 and followed comparable 3.5% and 8.6% decreases for July and August respectively.

Long-term lag:

Macau is home to some of the world’s largest and most famous gambling venues including the Casino Grand Lisboa from SJM Holdings Limited as well as Melco Resorts and Entertainment Limited’s Studio City Macau while the September figure means that the city’s casinos have now recorded nine-month aggregated gross gaming revenues of about $27.27 billion, which represents a contraction of 1.67% year-on-year.

Multiple millstones:

Bloomberg reported that Macau’s casino sector remains ‘vulnerable to headwinds’ such as the continuing political unrest in nearby Hong Kong, the ongoing trade war between the United States and China and the looming ‘regulatory uncertainty’ concerning the future provision of junket services. It explained that September’s result was generally in line with earlier market predictions but that the comparable year-on-year rise had been assessed against a month in which Typhoon Mangkhut had forced the city to temporarily close its gambling venues for the first time in its history.

Dimming disposition:

The news service reported that multiple analysts had predicted that Macau’s casino market would strengthen over the course of the second-half of 2019. However, it detailed that this earlier forecast has now darkened with its own index of the jurisdiction’s casino firms standing some 1.1% lower following an August decline of 11%.