Obviously the gambling industry round the globe is having a hard time and all the reforms, new laws, protests and disagreements have a negative impact on the revenue of the biggest casinos worldwide and Macau casino is not an exception.
The authorities have recently revealed the income for September and it looks like it was the four consecutive month, marked by a steady decline. According to the data, included in the report, the revenue fell sharply with 11.7%. Although the experts have expected the decline to be between 12 and 13%, September can be regarded as the month with the most disappointing results for the last five years. The revenue hasn’t been worse since 2008 when the global economic crisis started.
Despite the fact that the current situation is not really optimistic, Macau remains one of the few casinos, which still have a relatively stable overall income of more than $34 billion.
Market analysts are convinced that the reason for the dramatic downfall is the standstill of the VIP gambling activities. Such a decrease is not surprising though. Actually, that’s the expected result of the narrowed credit market and the attempts of the Chinese President Xi Jinping to fight corruption and any kind of illegal gambling activities.
The released data suggests that the percentage of the VIP gambling activities have fallen between 25 and 30. Sheldon Adelson, the Chairman of Las Vegas Sands, have discussed the topic about the improvement of the VIP market and he was certain that we will witness some development within a few months.
While Adelson defends the actions of the Chinese president and considers them to be appropriate, some market analysts consider the information, released by the source Adelson used to support his standpoint, was too scarce and even confusing.
In general, the mass market is expected to mark slight improvement as well.
Some experts think that the revenue of Macau casino will grow by no more than one percent but that’s not the worse thing the local gambling industry is up to face. The bank predicts 0% growth for the next year due to the unexpected decrease in the anti-corruption activities as well as the new law that forbids smoking on the casino floors in the region.
However, things will most probably go on the positive side in 2016 when a 13% growth is expected due to the bouncy mass market. The VIP sector, however, will shrink up to 7%.
As a general rule, the profits, made on the mass market are higher than the profits in the VIP sector.
Statistics show that Galaxy Entertainment Group was the leader for the last month with a market share equal to almost 23%. Sands China took the second place, SJM Holdings was the the third company with the highest percentage.
