Macau casinos bounce back after three years of depressed gaming revenue

However, when comparing March numbers with results from pre-pandemic 2019, Macau is still a little more than 50 percent behind what some analysts say would be a solid recovery after three years of economic turmoil.

Three Nevada-based companies — Las Vegas Sands, MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts — make up three of Macau’s six gaming license holders.

“We have believed that getting down to 50 percent or lower level relative to 2019 was always going to be an important threshold,” Stifel Financial gaming analyst Steven Wieczynski wrote in a research note Sunday, a day after Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said casinos reported collecting $1.53 billion in gaming revenue, a 247 percent increase from a year ago.

The result gave Macau a three-month revenue total of more than $4.3 billion, almost assuring the region will soon surpass 2022’s 18-year revenue collection low in just four months after April’s total is counted.

“While we remain positive around the reopening of this important market, we still believe the next couple of months will be a roller coaster as China goes through the ebbs and flows of reopening,” Wieczynski said.

The Nevada companies are expected to provide additional insight beyond the revenue totals when they report first-quarter earnings results in the coming weeks.

Macau was considered the world’s largest gaming market when it topped $45 billion in casino revenue in 2013. But years of economic upheaval in China, followed by the pandemic, all but shut down the casino business starting in January 2020.

Analysts noted the March gaming revenue total was 23 percent higher than the $1.3 billion reported in February and was Macau’s single-highest monthly revenue figure in 38 months.

“March’s better-than-expected results should reassure investors of the market’s recovery,” J.P. Morgan gaming analyst Joe Greff told investors.

By Howard Stutz