Macau Casino Hits 2nd-largest monthly sales in August

Macau’s casino industry posted its second-highest monthly gaming revenue for the month in August, with analysts saying the market shows no signs of slowing down.

Macau’s Office for the Coordination of Game Inspection said Monday that casinos in the Chinese game market collected $3.8 billion from gamblers in the month of August. The total is up 18 percent from August 2012.

August’s figure came in first place only on the record $3.92 billion collected in March by Macau casinos.

Analysts said the figure was impressive in that Typhoon Utor may have delayed his visit for two or three days in a month. 에볼루션 바카라사이트

During the first eight months of 2013, Macau gaming sales rose 16 percent compared to 2012, when the market raised $38 billion. Analysts expect revenue growth of 16 percent to 18 percent in 2013.

“We believe Macau fundamentals remain strong across all relevant sectors and we are confident that this trend will likely balance out this year and continue into early next year,” said Grant Goversen, principal of Macau-based Union Gaming Group.

MGM Resorts International, Wynn Resorts Ltd., and Las Vegas Sand Corp. all operate casinos in Macau, and each of the three companies is building new resorts on the Cotai Strip in the region.

Wynn and Las Vegas Sands collect more than 70% of the company’s total revenue from Macau.

Steven Weeczynski, game analyst at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets, said four Macau properties, including the one-year-old Cotai Central development in Sands, Las Vegas, would benefit from new ways to facilitate market access.

Weeczynski said, “With ongoing infrastructure projects designed to facilitate travel to Macau and further infiltrate large mainland population centers coming to fruition, we believe Las Vegas will be able to capture a disproportionate portion of this incremental journey.”

RBC Capital Markets game analyst John Kemp said Macau casinos will make stronger comparisons for the rest of 2013 to exceed 2012 gaming gross sales. Kemp, however, said a strong Chinese economy is a good sign for Macau.

“Observers point to an improvement in domestic and international demand because export orders have also increased recently,” Kemp said. “We see the latter as a positive sign for Macau given its proximity to Guangdong.”