Travel restrictions in place across mainland China following a recent COVID-19 outbreak have seen Macau’s gross gaming revenues fall by 37% in the seven days from 9 to 15 August.
According to brokerage Bernstein, daily GGR plummeted from an average of MOP$125 million (US$16 million) from 1 to 8 August to just MOP$78 million (US$10 million) over the past seven days – the lowest daily rate since September 2020.
Although Macau is already reopening after a mass-testing blitz of all residents found no further cases of COVID-19, visitation from 6 to 12 August was 78% lower than in July, slightly improving in the days since to 50% of July’s average.
Estimated GGR for the first 15 days of August combined is 87% lower than August 2019 and 62% below July 2021 at MOP$1.55 billion (US$193 million)
“Travel ability and demand worsened over the past week due to the COVID contagion,” said Bernstein analysts Vitaly Umansky, Louis Li and Kelsey Zhu in a Monday note.
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