Gambling revenues in Macau hit almost $1.85 billion last month, a 449 percent increase over April of 2022. This was also a 16 percent improvement on March 2023. While still 37.6 percent below April 2019 prior to COVID, the Macanese recovery appears to be progressing faster than Wall Street anticipated, especially since the first quarter of this year achieved only 45 percent of pre-pandemic levels of play.
Everyday players are seen to be driving the recovery. Wrote J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff, the numbers “coupled with reports of increasing visitation would suggest a broadening of a recovery to include base mass players starting to return (previously months’ recovery have been driven by premium mass/wealthy gaming patrons).”
Also boosting April’s take was the spillover of Labour Day tourists normally seen in May. The five-day holiday period kicked off on April 28, boosting that month’s take. Greff described visitation as “solid,” averaging 134,000 people a day, or 84 percent of the May Day average pre-COVID.
He concluded, “We continue to think that our thesis of all roads lead to Macau is very much intact, given steady, sequentially growing recovery that is still in its relatively early innings.”
He did not put “Buy” ratings on an Macau-facing stocks, but maintained “Overweight” status for Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts International, and Melco Resorts & Entertainment.
