Macau's premium mass gaming sector remains strong amid regulatory challenges

Macau's premium mass gaming segment has shown remarkable resilience despite Beijing's intensified efforts to curb illicit cross-border capital flows, according to a recent Citibank study.

The investment bank's monthly Macau table survey for July 2024 highlighted a significant increase in the number of premium mass players and total wagers in the city's high-limit gaming areas. Analysts George Choi and Ryan Cheung reported a 61% year-on-year rise in the number of premium mass players to 575, with total wagers increasing by 34% to HKD12.2 million ($1.6 million), Macau Daily Times reported.

Choi and Cheung observed that most of Macau's high-end players have legitimate means to transfer funds, allowing them to place bets as high as HKD1 million ($128,000) per hand. Their observations noted 23 players wagering HKD100,000 ($13,000) or more during the survey period, up from 19 players the previous year.

“Our July 2024 table survey suggests that concerns by some investors about a crackdown on illegal cross-border fund flows and its negative impact on Macau’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) are likely overstated,” the analysts said in their report, as per Macau Daily Times.

A notable instance involved a player at MGM Cotai’s high-limit area, placing bets up to HKD1 million per hand with a HKD6 million ($768,000) chip stack. This marked the second consecutive month of high-stakes gaming activity observed by the analysts.

The survey also noted the increasing use of smart gaming tables across Macau's casino floors. Galaxy Macau’s Pavilion South room has 43 such tables, Sands China’s Apex Room at Plaza has equipped all 18 of its tables with smart technology, The Venetian Macao has 73 of its 414 mass-market baccarat tables as smart tables, and Wynn added six more smart tables at Encore, totaling 30 of its 199 baccarat tables.

“We continue to believe that most players in Macau have their own legitimate ways to get their funds over to Macau, sufficient for them to bet as much as HKD1 million a hand,” the analysts were quoted in the report.

In terms of market performance, Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd and Sands China Ltd topped Citibank’s premium mass survey, together accounting for approximately 25% of the total wagers observed. Notably, 11 of the 23 high-stakes players were at casinos operated by these two companies.