Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd estimates that Macau casino GGR for 13-19 September dropped by 8% week-on-week, with the average daily rate of MOP243m ($30.3m) against MOP264m a day from the previous week.

Compared to pre-Covid-19 figures, the decline is 66%. Month-to-date GGR was MOP4.8bn, VIP average volumes were up 60-65% month-on-month, and daily mass GGR rose by approximately 70% from August figures.

Asia is still suffering from the ongoing pandemic, and recently, there was an outbreak in Fujian province, but the analysts stated it shouldn’t impact the figures too much. “The outbreak in China still needs to be monitored, but the impact would be limited if it’s contained in Fujian,” said the analysts from Bernstein.

The province accounts for about 5% of visitors to Macau, while the majority of tourists are coming from Guangdong province, and currently there are no indications of the outbreak spreading. Macau currently has a quarantine-free travel bubble with China, but there are plans to open one with Hong Kong as well. There have been several delays to the travel arrangements, but it’s expected to be launched sometime this autumn.

There are also ongoing changes to Macau’s gambling industry. The city’s authorities are seeking to rework the casino concession system, as the current licences are set to expire in June 2022. It is yet unclear if the government will extend the current concessions, but the operators are already preparing for the removal of sub-concession. The authorities are also planning to assign delegates to monitor how well the operators are fulfilling their licence-related obligations.