Macau’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the first 11 days of August stood at MOP7.1 billion (US$890 million) , signaling a solid mass gaming demand into the summer holiday, brokerage J.P. Morgan said in a Monday update.

Analysts DS Kim, Mufan Shi and Selina Li noted in the report that last week’s daily run-rate continued to improve sequentially to MOP657 million per day, a rate that was ‘meaningfully above the MOP590 million/MOP600 million daily run-rates in June/July’.

The brokerage estimates that mass GGR is at around 110 per cent of the pre-Covid level, while VIP segment GGR is around “low to mid-20s per cent” of the 2019 level.

“We keep our forecasts unchanged for August GGR, to be around MOP19-19.5 billion (or MOP610-630 million/day), which could turn out to be a tad conservative if the current weekly run-rates sustain towards the monthend,” the analysts wrote.

Regarding Macau government’s recent move to criminalise unauthorised money exchanges, the analysts observed that ‘it’s no longer easy to find such fund exchange providers in/around casinos’, with market participants no longer expecting their return in the foreseeable future.

Last Friday (9 August), lawmaker Chan Chak Mo, who heads a Legislative Assembly committee studying the bill against gambling crimes, told media that a new provision would be added to criminalise illegal money exchanges that take place on casino premises.

According to the lawmaker, all ancillary facilities specifically used for the operation of gambling and other ancillary facilities dedicated to art, cultural, recreational, business or hotel-related activities will be considered part of the ‘casino’.

Earlier in June, China’s Ministry of Public Security initiated the efforts to combat illegal money exchanges, urging security forces in Macau and the mainland to strengthen cooperation in cracking down on such businesses in the Macau SAR.

The so-called ‘money changers’, present around the city’s casinos, have been identified as a key method for moving funds across different jurisdictions, particularly between the mainland and Macau.