More than 30 casinos in Macau reportedly recovered somewhat from a disappointing May, bringing total gaming revenue to about $2.78 billion in June, up 12.5% year-on-year.
According to official figures from the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, the most recent results imply that total gaming revenue in the first half of 2018 at casinos in previous Portuguese residences rose 19% year-on-year to only about $18.59 billion.
The figure is better than May’s 12.1% year-over-year improvement, with city casinos reporting a 31-day total of $3.15 billion, but still well below the 20% increase some brokerages had forecast. All this came after the regional sector rose 27.6% to $3.18 billion in April, while the total of $3.21 billion in March represented a 22.2% increase.
JPMorgan Securities (Asia-Pacific) Limited reportedly said in its official memorandum last week that Macau’s total game sales for June were set to be ‘pretty good and resilient in our view, especially given the slow post-holiday season and the negative impact of the [2018 FIFA] World Cup’. It was emphasizing the belief that profits would certainly be negatively affected by the low betting volume often seen at major sports tournaments, such as China’s traditional Golden Week and the soccer festival now taking place in Russia.