Banking group Citigroup said on Monday it was raising its forecast for Macau’s August casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) to MOP21.75 billion (US$2.70 billion) from MOP21.50 billion previously. If achieved, it would would be a 10 percent year-on-year increase, and represent circa 90 percent of the August 2019 level, stated the institution in a memo.
“Based on industry sources, Macau GGR for the first 17 days of August is likely to have reached circa MOP12.1 billion,” wrote analysts George Choi and Timothy Chau.
They added: “This implies a daily run-rate of about MOP729 million during the previous week (August 11 to 17), a circa 4-percent increase versus that of the first ten days of August 2025 – circa MOP700 million a day, and circa 14-percent higher versus the August 2024 average (circa MOP637 million a day).”
According to the Citi team, the increase in run rate was despite a “‘black rainstorm’ [warning] in Macau in midweek last week,” which “attests to players’ passion to gaming”.
“Based on industry sources, VIP volumes fell circa 2 percent to 4 percent month-on-month, but mass GGR grew circa 1 percent to 2 percent month-on-month,” noted the analysts.
“VIP hold rate appears to be higher than that of the first ten days of August,” they added.
Citi’s MOP21.75 billion GGR forecast for August implies an average of about “MOP689 million a day for the rest of the month”.
Casino GGR in July this year marked the best monthly performance since January 2020, just before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. It rose 19.0 percent year-on-year in July, standing at nearly MOP22.13 billion, showed official data.
