The recently released monthly report from Macau’s Gambling Information and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) showed that aggregate casino win (the amount gamblers lost in the casinos last month) amounted to MOP 27.2 billion, or about US$3.4 billion. That’s a 3.7% year-on-year drop, the first red figure I can remember for the SAR, and the only one on the DICJ website, which contains comparisons going back to 2010.
Yes, the figures might have been slightly in the black if not for the World Cup keeping potential gamblers glued to their TV sets at home rather than being at the casino tables. And it has been clear that the yoy comparisons would get progressively tougher as 2014 unfolded. That’s because 2013 results got stronger as the VIP market returned to normal after the mainland Chinese Communist Party leadership transition.
There are two more important reasons for the flattening out of the Macau gambling market, however. Both are temporary, I think.
–the continuing anti-corruption crackdown by Beijing, which has VIP gamblers adopting a lower profile, and
–lack of junket operator credit (junket operators typically borrow, at rates of 1%+ per month, funds that they advance to VIPs), in the wake of the apparent disappearance of a prominent organizer with US$1 billion – US$1.3 billion of his company’s funds. This has understandably made lenders reluctant to back any junket operator as fully as before.
Interestingly, the Macau gambling stocks, which have been very weak performers since early this year, rallied on the DICJ report.
What to do?
My guess is that the VIP segment of the Macau market will be at best flat for the rest of the year. That will make it hard for the aggregate gambling market in the SAR to show significant advances. However, the real story of Macau is below the surface. It’s the rapid shift away from VIPs and toward the mass affluent that’s now going on. The latter, which already account for the bulk of the SAR’s win, are also big spenders in the casinos’ food, entertainment and shopping venues (remember, non-gambling activities can account for half a casino’s income, and they’re just getting started in Macau).
The Hong Kong-traded casino stocks, which have been very weak performers since early in the year, seem to me to have already discounted the negative developments I’ve described above.
In my view, the worst hurt by the VIP slowdown will be the traditional casinos run by the Ho family. The least affected will be Sands China, Wynn Macau and Galaxy Entertainment (I own Galaxy and the parents of the two others).
I’m not rushing to add to my exposure (although I think I may have missed the bottom in Wynn Macau a couple of weeks ago), but i have no desire to sell, either.