It’s still a huge drop but at least it is the best performance turned in by the gaming industry in the last three months. Gaming revenues in Macau will likely decline 16.5 per cent this month, according to a poll of four investment houses conducted by Business Daily.
With investor checks only going as far as January 11, the estimates for the full month still have a considerable margin of error – and in previous months, final figures have fallen on the lower side of interval expectations. If market predictions are correct and casino revenues drop by 16.5 per cent in January on a year-on-year basis, Macau casinos will have its best month since September. Gaming revenues went down at an average of 25 percent in the last quarter of 2014.
Macau gaming operators recovered some ground yesterday in the stock market, with shares improving around 1.5 percent (except Melco Crown, which lost 1.2 per cent). This, in a week that saw the arrest of more than 100 people in Macau related to a prostitution ring, including Alan Ho, nephew of casino tycoon Stanley, and other executives. In addition, Studio City, one of the ten big mega casinos set to open up to 2017, presented itself, changing even more the gaming landscape of Macau.