Macau gambling revenue growth slows in February



Macau posted February gross gaming revenue that missed analyst expectations, as many high rollers avoided the enclave during the two-week Chinese New Year

Macau posted February gross gaming revenue that missed analyst expectations, as many high rollers avoided the enclave during the two-week Chinese New Year.

February gaming revenue rose 5.7 percent to $3 billion. It is the smallest gain since January 2017 and a much smaller gain than then 10 percent increase Wall Street analysts had expected.

Chinese New Year started on Feb. 16 this year compared with the end of January last year, making year-over-year comparisons in January and February difficult to forecast.

High rollers and other active gamblers often skip the gaming peninsula during the Chinese New Year, a period when families use the national holiday to visit popular tourist destinations.

"The outsized growth over the past several quarters has been predominantly driven by the premium mass and VIP segments, the types of players who historically have scaled back trips to Macau during high-visitation family-oriented national holidays," Stifel gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski said in a note Thursday.

Many analysts choose to look at the two-month period as a better indication of Macau gaming trends. Gross gaming revenue rose 20 percent over the first two months of the year compared with the same period last year.

Stifel forecasts Macau revenue to grow in the low to mid teens this year. The enclave is "well on its way to achieving" those forecasts, Wieczynski said.

Las Vegas Sands Corp., Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts International all have a significant presence on Macau.

The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson.

Contact Todd Prince at 702 383-0386 or tprince@reviewjournal.com. Follow @toddprincetv on Twitter.

This article is a reprint from ReviewJournal.com.  To view the original story and comment, click here. 


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