Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) reported industry-wide gross gaming revenue of MOP$18.6 billion (US$2.31 billion) in July, up 11.6% year-on-year and 5.1% higher than in June.
It also represents a recovery back to 75.9% of July 2019 levels, when Macau GGR was MOP$24.5 billion (US$3.04 billion).
The improved July result was in part due to seasonality given the prior month of June is traditionally the weakest each year, but is also tipped by most analysts to be the start of a stronger finish to the year, with 3Q24 expected to be stronger than Q2 and Q4 becoming stronger again.
For the first seven months of 2024 combined, GGR reached MOP$132.3 billion (US$16.4 billion), up 36.7% compared to the same period last year.
In a recent note, Seaport Research pointed to a series of key questions moving forward when it comes to how Macau will perform in 2H24, specifically “operating costs, player reinvestment, July trends and August outlook, impact of money flow crackdown and the impact it may be having on gaming revenues, slowness of base mass recovery and what expectations may be.”
The research platform said it expects a “slight increase” in GGR in Q3 on seasonality followed by a more meaningful 5.5% jump in the December 2024 quarter.