Macau investors

Macau investors warn of weak game sales in January

As more than 30 casinos in Macau reportedly posted lower-than-expected earnings during the first week, brokerage firm Sanford C Bernstein & Company forecast its upcoming January total gaming revenue tally could remain relatively constant.

Sanford C Bernstein and Company analysts Kelsey Zhu, Eunice Lee, and Vitaly Umansky explained that recent channel checks showed Macau casinos had total daily gaming sales of about $155.28 million, up about 12% year-on-year.

However, the researchers reportedly warned that these figures should be considered with 'some scepticism because weekly channel checks have proven inaccurate', while warning that continued weakness in the Chinese economy could prove to be more 'volatile' with smaller amounts of cash paid at casinos in Macau 릴게임

Therefore, the company team detailed that it expects Macau's total gaming revenue in January to be between $3.31 billion and $3.18 billion, representing an increase or decrease of about 2% year over year.

It was the last time Macau posted negative growth in total gaming revenue, as the country posted a tally of $2.41 billion for the month, representing a decline of about 4.5% compared to 31 days in the same period. The former Portuguese enclave has recorded 29 consecutive months of growth since then, with December's figure rising 16.6% year-on-year to $3.27 billion.

The Instinet stock trading arm of Japanese investment firm Nomura Holdings reportedly backed up warnings from Sanford C Bernstein and the company, expecting Macau's total gaming sales to remain flat or improve by up to 5%.

"We think we've benefited from the slightly higher share of total daily gaming sales over the weekend. This would positively impact total daily gaming revenue by approximately $2.11 million, assuming weekend demand is approximately 1.5 times that of a typical weekday."