Citibank: Macau's gaming revenue in July is expected to rise 6% year-on-year in August due to the typhoon

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Citibank released a research report saying that Macau's gross gaming revenue (GGR) in July was 20.06 billion patacas (about 654 million patacas per day), down 8% from the previous year and recovered to about 83% of July 2019 levels, lower than the bank's forecast of MOP 21 billion and market expectations of MOP 20.8 billion. Citi believes that the drop is mainly due to the impact of typhoon “Hongxia” which hit Hong Kong and Macau from July 26 to 27. On the last 12 days of July, the average daily gaming revenue implied operating rate reached about MOP 684 million. The bank believes it would have exceeded MOP 700 million without the typhoon. Looking ahead to August, there will be a big concert almost every weekend in Macau. Citi predicts that Macau's gaming revenue will rise back to MOP 23.5 billion in August (an average of about MOP 758 million per day), an increase of 6% over the previous year.