Holiday gamblers boost Macau casinos
Record number of visitors from the mainland during the Lunar New Year sees February gaming revenue rise 11.5pc to 27 billion patacas
Macau casinos took in 27.08 billion patacas in gross gaming revenue last month, up 11.5 per cent year on year as the week-long Lunar New Year holiday on the mainland saw the arrival of large numbers of Chinese gamblers.
The accumulated gross gaming revenue for the first two months of this year reached 53.9 billion patacas, an increase of 9.4 per cent over the same period last year, according to statistics from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
Last month's figures beat the estimates of some analysts.
After the holiday season, an initial report from HSBC Global Research said gaming revenues failed to reach its projections. A CLSA research note issued on February 19 said it expected the month to end up flat.
"During the month it looked like February would be quite soft but there was a strong rebound in the VIP segment at the end of the month," said Aaron Fischer, the head of consumer and gaming research at CLSA.
Grant Govertsen, the lead analyst at Macau-based Union Gaming Research, said very strong mainland visitor growth was reflected in strong mass-market gross gaming revenue for the month.