Macau casinos reported gross gaming revenue (GGR) of MOP18.55 billion (US$2.3 billion) in April 2024, a 26% year-over-year increase.
The Chinese gaming enclave’s six casino operators — Sands, Galaxy, MGM, Wynn, SJM, and Melco — saw play improve from April 2023, but April nonetheless represented a 5% GGR drop from March when gaming win totaled $2.42 billion.
Gaming analysts expected the April downturn from March. The month was “in line with historical seasonality,” a note from brokerage Citigroup read.
The $2.3 billion won last month represents about 79% of the April 2019 GGR that the same six casino concessionaires generated.
Through four months of 2024, GGR in the world’s richest gaming market — a title Macau regained from Nevada after China President Xi Jinping ended his “zero-COVID” program in late 2022 — stands at approximately $9.41 billion. The January through April accumulation is 54% better than a year ago and accounts for 76% of the 2019 GGR won in the same four-month span.
Analysts focused on the Macau gaming industry say the first third of the year shows the market is stabilizing, an encouraging sign for the six casino giants. Though gaming revenue continues to inch closer to pre-pandemic conditions, the overhead for the gaming firms has skyrocketed due to their nongaming investment commitments they pledged to the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government in December 2022 in exchange for 10-year license extensions.
Seeking to diversify its economy away from gaming, Macau issued the six companies fresh tenders in late 2022. The casino operators agreed to collectively invest $13.5 billion in nongaming developments at their resorts during the 10-year extension.
The nongaming investment figure grew to nearly $18 billion after last year’s GGR triggered an increase that raised the amount by almost $4.5 billion.
May should see a month-over-month GGR rebound, as the month kicks off with the Chinese Labor Day break. The holiday period runs from today, May 1, through Sunday, May 5.
Capital markets advisory group CLSA recently upgraded its full-year 2024 outlook for Macau GGR by 3.5% to roughly $30.3 billion. Analysts cited better-than-expected visitation trends.
Chinesenews agency Xinhua reported this week that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge served a record 3.26 million vehicles last year, or an average daily crossing of more than 8,900 vehicles.
If the CLSA number is realized, the Macau casino industry would return to 83% of the 2019 gaming win that totaled $36.5 billion.
