April another dismal month for Macau

Analyst predictions of a further decline in Macau gambling revenues in April have proved disappointingly correct following the release of official numbers that show a steep dive of 38.8 percent y-o-y…the eleventh consecutive monthly fall.

On the brighter side, some analysts feel that the market may have bottomed out, and some upward share price movement on Macau casino stocks appeared to respond to this sentiment.

The combination of a Chinese government crackdown on overt affluence and corruption, allied to a slower Chinese economy were again blamed for the decline.

The Reuters news service reported that Macau revenues are still almost 6 times those of Las Vegas and reached 19.167 billion patacas ($2.40 billion) in April, substantially down from 31.318 billion patacas a year earlier.

Data from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau shows that in the first four months of 2015, revenue fell 37 percent to 83.9 billion patacas.

Chinese visitors to Macau fell by 17.6 percent in March, the city’s Statistics and Census Service said on its website on April 27.