Macau’s total casino gaming revenue rose 9.3% year-on-year to 32.35 billion MOPs ($4.05 billion) in May, local regulators said at lunchtime on Tuesday.
Sales in May were the slowest growth in four months as casino operators embraced more premium public gamblers following a slowdown in the expansion of VIP games.
“We believe the VIP segment is likely to be tracked below expectations due to a combination of factors, including reduced risk from continued market mergers and acquisitions, concerns about widespread anti-corruption crackdowns across China (which do not specifically target Macau), and some impact from China’s macroeconomic challenges,” Union Gaming Research Macau Limited said in a note on Tuesday.
Local media reports, however, say Macau authorities and China UnionPay, the only interbank network in the People’s Republic of China that is authorized to operate, are cracking down on the use of disguised transactions conducted in Macau to avoid strict cross-border funding controls in mainland China. Some analysts think this has affected public market gambling in recent weeks.
However, Macau’s economy and finance minister, Francis Tambac, said last month that the government had not set a deadline to limit the use of China Union Pay swipe card devices inside casinos. In 2013, Union Pay sales in Macau totaled $22.5 billion, nearly half of Macau’s 2013 gaming revenue, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, game operators are preparing to focus on the premium mass sector to drive growth this year. Premium mass market players are at the top of the market, playing for higher than the mass market average. Macau casino operators said premium mass players offer higher margins than VIP gamblers because casinos don’t have to pay commissions to junket operators.
According to the Game Inspection and Coordination Bureau, VIP baccarat accounted for 63.7 percent of total game sales in the first quarter. During the first three months of 2014, mass market baccarat’s sales reached 28.5 billion MOPs. This is 12 percent higher than the annual sales of mass market baccarat in 2009.
“The bulk market still appears to be strong, which is why we believe all management has taken the time to highlight in its Q1 results that more than 70% of its cash flow comes from non-VIPs. That said, the risk to Macau cash flow this year is less than the headline GGR [gross revenue from games] figures suggest.”
But the research house said there was no real change in investor sentiment.
The Macau gaming regulator said its cumulative total for May 31 was MOP 165.87 billion, up 15.8% year-over-year.
BY: 홀짜게임