Gambling in Macau Grows in Q2

Macau is the world’s greatest gambling market. The sheer number of players flooding in on a yearly basis from neighboring Asian regions, but also from around the world is staggering, and the revenue brings in billions of dollars annually. And while such behemoth demands struggle to even stay in the same place, this growth is indeed happening, only not at pace some might expect.

The Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) has revealed the financial figures for the second quarter of 2018 and it says that aggregated gross gaming revenue grew by 17.2% and reached over $9 billion, while gross gaming revenue in Macau’s VIP segment expanded by 14.4% year-on-year, which is in fact the slowest growth rate measured during a single quarter since the end of 2016, when it was “only” 12.6%. This decline in VIP revenue is down to mainland China’s softening of the economy.

During this period, slots has risen in the second quarter by 23.6% year-on-year, to over $471 million.

JP Morgan Securities went on to forecast that Macau’s VIP segment will be growing at only a 9% rate in the second half of 2018, which is close but still nearer to the official prediction given by Japan’s Nomura Holdings which foresees a 7% year-on-year growth for the high roller segment.

Source:

“Macau VIP GGR growth in 2Q slowest since end-2016”, ggrasia.com, July 16, 2018.