The gaming industry is in love with Macau right now and it’s not hard to see why. Not a month goes by when the burgeoning Chinese gambling enclave doesn’t produce a set of figures to die for. May won’t be any different and days before the month ends Portuguese new agency Lusa report that it will be a record month for gross gaming revenue.
Macaubusiness.com reports that Lusa is quoting estimates from Sands China and SJM Holdings that the figure for May should be close to MOP 24billion ($3 billion). Gross gaming revenue for the first part of the month is estimated to have already reached MOP12 billion so a new record may be set. Certainly explains why Macau’s getting Steve Wynn all warm and excited inside.
More good news for Macau comes in the shape of official data showing that visitor numbers are continuing to increase. April saw a year-on-year increase of 10.7% as the amount of visitors to the gaming region increased to 2.3million in April. Same-day visitors were 54.4% of the total and may well have been boosted by the completion of a new railway constructed on the Chinese mainland back in January.
As for the first four months of the year as a whole the amount of visitors arriving hit 8.77million and is up 6.6% on last year. The airport was the only part of Macau that saw numbers drop off in the same time scale. Passenger numbers dropped to 1.26 million, 11.5% less than the year before. The amount of flights stayed the same as the year before and the lower number of passengers could also have been affected by the new rail line.
