Fleeting as its time in Macau was, Typhoon Usagi still made an impact on the casino hub’s gross revenues for the month of September. Just goes to show that when it comes to Mother Nature, all bets are really off.
Fresh off of posting the second highest revenue month (MOP30.7 billion) in Macau history back in August, Macau’s casino revenues fell back to earth, “only” netting MOP28.96 billion for the month of September. It’s a total that’s a little short on the expectations analysts had, but still enough to drive a 21.4-percent increase from its numbers over the same period a year ago.
But despite the still strong numbers generated by Macau’s casinos, the underlying feedback for the month was that it could’ve still been better were it not for weather conditions that effectively slowed down activity in the gambling town for a few days. Analysts initially estimated September growth to hover around the 22 to 25 percent range, so the final number, despite still being a healthy improvement compared to last year’s numbers, is still a bit disappointing.
But now that the calendar has flipped to October, expectations are soaring that Macau will generate a record-shattering month, largely attributed to the Golden Week Holiday that’s expected to attract tourists from all over China. A lot of the hotels in the city are up to full capacity for the entire week, giving analysts reason to believe that Macau’s gross revenue for October could hit MOP32 billion, a shade over the current record of MOP31.3 billion that the gaming town earned in March of this year.
For the year, accumulated gross gaming revenue has reached MOP260.6 billion, a number that represents a 16.7-percent increase in the first nine months of the year compared to the same time period a year ago.
Hopefully, no typhoons disrupt those expectations this time around.
