Macao’s casinos reaped a total gross gaming revenue (GGR) of 18.486 billion patacas (US$2.29 billion) last month, according to the latest figures from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (also referred to by its Portuguese initials DICJ).
It marks a month-on-month drop of 4.4 percent, compared to the 19.337 billion patacas (US$2.39 billion) recorded in January.
Year-on-year, the latest total represents an increase of 79.1 percent compared to February 2023, which saw GGR of just 10.324 billion patacas (US$1.28 billion).
However, the new sum falls slightly short of the earlier forecasts made by analysts such as JP Morgan, which put February’s GGR at 19 billion patacas, and Citigroup, which estimated the sum would be 19.5 billion patacas.
[See more: Macao reports 19.3 billion patacas in gross gaming revenue for January]
The decrease also comes in spite of the record-breaking influx of visitors to the city last month. Estimates from JP Morgan and Citigroup suggested the casinos collected a GGR of 12.5 billion patacas (US$1.5 billion) in the first 18 days of February or a daily haul of 694 million patacas (US$86 million).
According to estimates by Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank Securities, the SAR’s total GGR this year is forecasted to jump by more than 20 percent year-on-year, with the former investment firm estimating the total to be 234 billion patacas (US$28.98 billion), a surge of 28 percent.
The government, however, has a more conservative estimate of 216 billion patacas or an 18 percent increase in relation to 2023’s GGR total.
Last year, the SAR’s GGR totalled 181.1 billion patacas (US$22.43 billion), a figure that surpassed the 130 billion patacas (US$16.10 billion) that the government estimated.
