Asia’s premier gambling hub continues to enjoy a robust VIP segment in the third quarter based on the figures released by Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ).
Macau’s VIP numbers showed a 35 percent expansion in the July to September 2017 period, with VIP baccarat leading the surge of casino gross gaming revenue (GGR).
VIP baccarat GGR was worth approximately MOP38.69 billion (US$4.81 billion) in third quarter of 2017, representing 57.7 percent of all casino revenue. In the third quarter 2016, VIP baccarat was nearly 52.1 percent or MOP28.65 billion ($3.56 billion).
Mass market GGR posted a 7.4 percent year-on-year increase in the 92-day period. Including slot machines, mass market GGR rose to MOP28.32 billion ($3.52 billion) from MOP26.36 billion.
Mass-market baccarat, which accounted 31.2 percent of all casino GGR in Q3, rose by 7 percent to MOP20.88 billion ($2.6 billion) compared to last year’s MOP19.47 billion ($2.42 billion).
Slot machine revenue jumped 13.4 percent to MOP3.22 billion ($400.34 million) in third quarter of 2017, compared to MOP2.84 billion ($353.1 million) last year.
From 16,204 in Q2, the market’s number of slot machines grew 0.7 percent to 16,310 in Q3.
The DICJ also reported that the market aggregate for all casino GGR expanded by 21.8 percent to MOP67 billion ($2.7 billion).
Many analysts had expected that Macau’s casino sector earnings would likely to have slowed to 16 percent in the third quarter due to a higher base comparison from Q2, during which the figures rose 28 percent.
Analysts did not consider the damage from Typhoon Hato in their third-quarter assessments because they believe that the damage would be partly covered by insurance, and that investors should look beyond that event.
