Premium mass betting in Macau remains strong with 40% Y-o-Y increase in player count in August

Most gamblers to Macau have managed to visit local casinos with funds obtained in legitimate ways despite a widely reported crackdown on unlicensed money touts, Citigroup analysts said. In their latest note on Macau gaming, analysts George Choi and Ryan Cheung wrote that the observed premium mass betting had risen not only year on year but also month on month, Macau Business reported. 

“Our survey continues to show that demand by mainland Chinese players remains robust,” commented the pair. As many as 25 whales, bettors who gamble at least HKD100,000 (US$12,509) each hand, have bet as much as HKD600,000 ($76,958) per hand, they added.

“There were a total of six whales betting HKD130,000 ($16,674) to HKD330,000 ($42,327) during our short visit to Galaxy Macau’s Horizon Room,” the analysts said. “Three whales betting between HK$100,000-330,000 were seen at Wynn Palace’s Chairman Club,” they added.

According to their observation, the observed wager has risen 35 percent year on year to HKD12.8 million ($1,641,721) in August, driven by a year-on-year increase of 40 percent in higher player count. The number of August premium pass punters stands at 655, which is 40 percent higher compared to a year earlier.

This, according to the report, suggests that the average wager per player fell to HKD19,606 ($2514) in August, marking a 7 percent decline from HKD21,193 ($2718) a month earlier.

“We think this is just reflecting normal seasonality – the data we gathered from our surveys in 2019 show similar MoM decline in wager/player (-6%),” the analysts wrote.

Galaxy Entertainment Group has been ranked first with a 29 percent market share in total wager observed – up from about 25 percent a month earlier. 32 percent of the 25 whales observed were said to have played at Galaxy casinos.