“Encouraging” isn’t what you usually say about a 75% plunge in revenue. But in Macao, where casino win has been virtually nonexistent this year it’s cause for dancing in the streets. To be pedantic, revenues were down 72.5% but an improvement on the -90% metrics of recent months. It is, said JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff, “an encouraging sign that China’s easing of prior travel curbs and visa pause is starting to generate improving visitation and revenue recovery.” Premium-mass play is said to have been strong, “meaningfully” better than VIP action, good news for Sands China and Melco Resorts & Entertainment, not so much for VIP-centric Wynn Resorts. “We’d note that this performance is consistent with recent positive earnings conference call comments from LVS and MGM,” Greff wrote, adding that casinos are reaching the cash flow break-even point. While the market is down 81.5% year to date, the consensus estimate for October was slightly worse than the final result.
