Macau casino VIP gambling revenue growth outpaced overall casino gaming revenue growth in 2017, despite a mild VIP slowdown in the year’s final quarter.
Figures released Tuesday by Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) showed casino gaming revenue hitting MOP 72.36b (US $9b) in the final three months of 2017. Of this sum, VIP gaming claimed MOP 40.6b, its highest quarterly total last year, and nearly 22% higher than Q4 2016.
However, Q4’s VIP growth rate was significantly below Q3’s 35%, which Union Gaming analysts partially chalked up to a lower than normal win rate in the month of December. Still, VIP’s share of Q4’s overall casino pie nudged up one point to 56.2%.
For FY17, VIP revenue improved 26.7% to MOP 150.7b, outpacing the 19.5% growth reported by the overall casino market last year. VIP baccarat accounted for 56.7% of 2017’s overall casino revenue, 1.7 points higher than last year.
Mass market gambling (including slots play) was up 17.1% year-on-year to MOP 31.7b in Q4, representing a 43.8% share. For the year as a whole, mass market revenue improved 10.3% to MOP 115b. Slots revenue rose 18.5% to MOP 3.6b in Q4, while FY17 slots play gained 15.6% to MOP 13.1b.
Interestingly, the live multi-game products – the hybrid ‘stadium’ style mix of live dealers and electronic bet collection that enjoyed solid growth over the past few years – saw revenue decrease 1% to MOP 624m in Q4, although the FY17 figure was up 3.4% to MOP 2.43b.
Macau casinos had 6,419 gaming tables in action at the end of Q4, 132 higher than the same point the previous year. The total number of slot machines in operation shot up by 1,796 units to 15,622, although this figure has a ways to go before it tops the 16,585 machines in action at the end of 2012.
