Macau Casinos Report Major Revenue GainsIsland Finally Approaching Pre-Pandemic Levels |
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Things continue looking up for the Macau gaming scene. Market watchers saw a jolt last week from casino stocks belonging to properties in the Chinese gaming mecca after the island recorded its second-best monthly performance since the pandemic.
Macau’s casinos saw $2.4 billion in gross gaming revenue, up 67% from the same month last year. This comes in just behind October’s record of $2.42 billion.
Back On Top
The Macau gaming scene dried up during the pandemic, but since China began allowing residents to visit again, the island has regained its perch as the world’s top gambling destination. The revenue numbers caused a spike in gaming stocks like Melco International, Galaxy Entertainment, MGM China, Wynn Macau, and Sands China.
The revenue totals are a stark contrast to what the island has seen over the last few years. The rising numbers of the last few months point to a return to normalcy in 2024. The island’s gaming industry produced $22.8 billion in 2023, after seeing only $2.8 billion from 2020-22.
“These have been extremely difficult years for Macau, and its gambling industry,” TheStreet.com reports. “COVID-19 shuttered casinos and kept punters away. Forced to maintain headcount, the casino operators bled a stream of red ink. Those tough times are over. This year, gambling revenue should surpass pre-COVID levels for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. The boom in outbound Chinese travel is the primary driver behind trends that bode very well for casino stocks.”
Some industry insiders are even more bullish on Macau for this year. Stifel Financial gaming analyst Steve Wieczynski recently even predicted revenue growth of 35% for this year.
“While we remain ahead of consensus, we believe the current consensus forecast remains overly conservative,” he wrote.
Recent reports also note that the revenue gains have expanded well beyond simply catering to China’s wealthy elite. Small-stakes gamblers have become a larger percentage of Macau casinos’ customers.
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