Macau?s gaming sector continues to thrive despite the threat of a credit crunch in the mainland, its major source of clients. The city?s gross gaming revenue recorded a 21.1 percent surge (year-on-year) last month to MOP28.26b after a 13.5 percent rise in May. But on a month-to-month comparison, the intake dropped 4.46 percent.
According to a statement made yesterday by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), the June monthly takings stood at nearly MOP28.3b, or 21.1 percent higher than those recorded within the same period last year (MOP23.3b).
However, the June figure was 4.46 percent lower than the MOP29.6b recorded in May, when the Labor Day golden week brought Macau an extra number of mainland Chinese tourists, who are the casinos? main clientele.
But that figure is still at the higher levels of market expectations after the mainland tightened its market recently, causing concerns of a lower liquidity that might affect the Macau gaming sector?s VIP business.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange was closed yesterday because of the public holiday, but in the previous trading session the HK-listed Macau gaming stocks recorded a positive performance at the conclusion of a series of positive results announced by the operators.
DICJ?s latest figures showed that the gaming sector has managed to keep its double-digit growth (year-on-year) since January. After two 13 percent increases of gaming returns during the month of April and May, last month the sector saw another increase, more than 20 percent since March.
The accumulated gross revenue of the gaming sector in the first six months of this year is MOP171.4b, which is 15.3 percent higher than that of the same period last year (MOP148.7b). The year-on-year growth rate of accumulated gaming revenue is 15.3 percent in June, or 0.9 percentage point higher than that of April (14.4 percent).?The accumulated intake has kept doubt-digit growths in the past 4 months.