Macau: August Gaming Revenue Forecast Remains Strong Despite Early Slowdown

Key points:

Gaming revenue for the first 10 days of August is estimated at MOP 7bn (US$868m).
The daily average is down 2% month-on-month but shows a 10% increase year-on-year.
The full-month forecast remains at MOP 21.5bn, which is close to the levels seen in 2019.

Macau’s casinos made about MOP 7 billion (US$868 million) in gaming revenue in the first 10 days of August. This information comes from investment bank estimates reported by Macao Daily.

This puts the daily average at MOP 700 million. This is a small 2% drop from July. However, it is still about 10% higher than last year at this time.

HSBC Research attributed the softer performance partly to a lower VIP win rate. It also noted that demand may have been affected by the city’s first black rainstorm warning of the year, issued last week.

Preliminary data from the Macau Government Tourism Office shows some interesting numbers. In July, the average number of visitors each day was around 110,000. This is over 10% higher than last year. Non-gaming spending in the second quarter stayed low. Overnight visitor spending dropped 3% compared to last year and 5% from the previous quarter.

Good to know: Concerts and entertainment events, like Eason Chan’s performances at Galaxy Macau, are anticipated to help expected some of the effects of the weather.

i’s analysis showed that the daily average revenue is MOP 700 million. This is a bit lower than July’s MOP 717 million, but still higher than August 2023 levels. The bank maintained an optimistic outlook for the month, projecting a year-on-year increase of 9% to reach MOP 21.5bn.

This would be about 89% of the revenue recorded in August 2019. This means an estimated daily average of MOP 690m for the rest of the month.

Analysts think that steady mass market performance and strong event-driven tourism will help meet these goals. This is true even with short-term ups and downs in VIP gaming.