CLSA Ltd. predicts Macau casino GGR to exceed $2.46 billion in February

A robust performance during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday season is expected to propel Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) to reach MOP19.8 billion (US$2.46 billion) in February, according to brokerage CLSA Ltd.

Analysts Jeffrey Kiang and Leo Pan recently concluded in a study that Macau is ready for a strong Chinese New Year’s performance, using the Macao Government Tourism Office’s projection of 120,000 visitors per day on average between February 10 and 17. According to their data from February 12, there was a lot of foot movement at integrated resorts and borders.

Over 898,000 visitors arrived in Macau over the first five days of the Chinese New Year vacation, on average 179,700 per day, according to official numbers provided by the city’s Public Security Police.

Historically, hundreds of thousands of mainland Chinese tourists have visited Macau’s casinos throughout the Chinese New Year holiday period, making it a lucrative time for the city.

The GGR estimate for February, as projected by CLSA, is MOP19.8 billion, 2% more than the figure for January. If successful, this would be the highest monthly revenue since the early 2020s, when the Covid-19 pandemic first started.

When CLSA visited Macau on February 12, it saw that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge was crossed by golden shuttle buses and crowded boats. While MOP1,000 (US$124) minimum bets on baccarat tables were common, tables with higher minimum bets (MOP2,000, MOP3,000, and MOP5,000) saw a lot of activity in the afternoon. In addition, gamblers enjoyed playing slots and a table game called sic bo, which has a larger house advantage.

Original story by: GGRAsia