Barring a letup in Beijing’s anti-corruption campaign, Macau casinos may have witnessed the last quarter in which VIP baccarat accounted for more than half of all gaming revenue.
Figures released Monday by Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) showed VIP baccarat accounting for MOP 26.6b in the three months ending June 30, down 15.7% from the same period last year.
By comparison, mass market gaming revenue fell a mere 1.1% to MOP 25b. And most of this decline was due to slot machines, which dropped 11.3% to MOP 2.63b, while mass market baccarat revenue actually posted a 0.2% year-on-year gain to MOP 18.65b.
The VIP baccarat share of overall gaming revenue was 51.5%, down from 55.5% in the same period one year ago and from 54.1% in Q1 2016. By contrast, mass market baccarat saw its share rise from to 36.1% from 32.7% last year.
Live multi-game revenue staged a minor comeback in Q2. After falling 11.5% to MOP 504m in Q2 2016, the electronic table revenue rose 11.5% to MOP 562m. The figure is also up slightly from Q1’s MOP 547m.
As for the gaming mix in Macau casinos, the number of live gaming tables was up 3.2% year-to-year to 5,998 while the number of slots fell 3% to 13,766. The table rise is attributable to the opening of Melco Crown Entertainment’s Studio City last October, which was allocated 250 new-to-market tables.
Sports betting via the Macau Slot monopoly enjoyed a Euro 2016 boost, with football revenue up 8.3% to MOP 1.83b, while basketball wagers were up nearly 7% to MOP 453m. Macau’s chronically underperforming horse- and greyhound-racing businesses continued racing to irrelevance, falling 20% to MOP 187m and 31% to MOP 103m, respectively.
