Through all Kinds of Weather, Macau Continues to Grow
Published December 13, 2018 by Lee R
The Macau market is showing that it's core segment looks strong enough upon which to build robust foundations of optimism.
Macau seems to be weathering its environment fairly well to sustain growth.
The Growth
Macau's Gross Gaming Revenue has grown effectively year-to-year according to November results.
Data released Saturday by the city's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau DICJ revealed that GGR rose 8.5% year-on-year for the month, to just short of MOP25.0 billion (US$3.10 billion).
Succeeding Prognostications
This falls in line with growth projects, as further revealed by the issuance of notes by several brokerages last week anticipating GGR growth of 5 percent to 10 percent, which still represented a substantial outshining over consensus estimates from analysts for Macau gross gaming revenue growth of ~5%.
Last Month's Peak
While the 8.5% figure for the month represented an acceleration from October’s 2.6-percent growth rate, the overall figure was down sequentially, as last month's Casino GGR in Macau actually stood at nearly MOP27.33 billion in October, representing the highest monthly tally in four years.
2018 Cumulative
The November result further brought Macau's cumulative year tally for 2018's first 11 months to MOP276.38 billion, representing a healthy jump of 13.7 percent from last year's period.
The 2018 total has already surpassed Macau's cumulative total for full year 2017 of MOP265.7 billion.
Record Sequential Growth
The monthly figure also represented the 28th consecutive month of revenue growth.
Drivers
The boost for the month was attributed to solid demand from Chinese punters converging on China's sole legal casino hub.
The rise was the fastest since August, and a strong assertion of robustness in the face of increasing macroeconomic concerns in China that have compromised patronage from VIP junket segments which accelerated growth after the crackdowns on casinos from the mainland ended a few years ago to open up the Macau market to this new era.
Outlook
Any market will have evolving and alternating threats and opportunities: the key to Macau appears to be it's ability to sustain growth in light of changes in climate.
