If there’s one thing you can guarantee about the global casino business, it’s that Macau is not likely to stop growing any time soon. September’s revenue figures reiterated this with gaming industry revenue showing no sign of dissipating as it rose by 39% to $2.6billion (21.2bn patacas).
September has not been the best month for the enclave. The global economy meant that earlier this week, a number of the region’s biggest players saw share prices rocked by losses of as much as 25%. The financial woes were complemented by a typhoon during a month that also had a public holiday to contend with. It goes some way to explaining why the growth percentage dropped from August’s record 57%. The government has been cagey on renewal of licenses for casino businesses further than the current term and this would eventually mean firms looking elsewhere to operate their business.
Analysts are still bullish on the enclave’s chances for the remainder of the year. Estimates put the year’s gambling revenue at $34bn. Shares in many of the casino business firms rose upon today’s revenue figures with shares in SJM Holdings recovering to post a 6% increase after yesterday’s heavy loss. The Asian gambling industry is still the place to be though. Nowhere else planet is it even conceivable that the land-based market will make this amount of money. When you translate this to the continent’s online gaming industry, then you can see why firms are champing at the bit to be involved in this part of the global market.
