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In Macau and local casino operator Sands China Limited has reportedly announced that its gross gaming revenues from the premium-mass segment have been recovering and currently stand at around 50% of their pre-pandemic levels.
According to a report from GGRAsia, this revelation came from the Hong Kong-listed firm’s Chief Operating Officer, Grant Chum Kwan Lock, during a conference call with investors to discuss its first-quarter financial results. The source detailed that the company recorded $336 million in premium-mass gross gaming revenues for the three months to the end of March, which represented a rise of 12% quarter-on-quarter but a year-on-year decline in the region of 57%.
Distinct deviation:
Chum also reportedly disclosed that gross gaming revenues from his company’s VIP operations have been ‘struggling’ of late and currently sit at about 20% of their pre-pandemic levels. The executive purportedly went on to declare that the two high-value segments have recently ‘diverged’ to follow ‘very different trajectories’ owing in large part to ‘structural changes’ in the Macau market including ‘more and more customers dealing directly with casino operators’ rather than through junkets.
Pandemic plunge:
Sands China Limited is a subordinate of American casino behemoth Las Vegas Sands Corporation and is responsible for the impressive Sands Macao, The Venetian Macao, The Plaza Macao and The Parisian Macao properties alongside the new-look The Londoner Macao development. The operator was hit hard by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and saw its net aggregated revenues for the first quarter of 2020 tumble by 65.1% year-on-year to just $814 million.
Chum reportedly told investors…
“All of the operators have attracted more consumers to their premium-mass programs and we expect this to continue over time. In March, we started to experience a pretty meaningful rebound in visitation that has continued in April. This acceleration is being seen across the different segments and the encouraging thing is that since March we’ve seen an acceleration in base mass.”
Licensing line:
For his part and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Las Vegas Sands Corporation, Robert Goldstein, reportedly used the same discussion to proclaim that the Macau casino market has recently been gradually recovering ‘across the board’ and that his firm expects this encouraging trend will ‘continue to accelerate’. The boss furthermore purportedly proclaimed that his company would be prepared to invest in non-gaming facilities in the region as a way to help ensure the extension of its local casino license beyond a looming June of 2022 expiration date.
Future facilities:
As such and Goldstein moreover reportedly divulged that Las Vegas Sands Corporation may soon join an initiative from the Chinese government to invest in non-gaming attractions in the areas around Macau, Hong Kong and Guangdong Province. He purportedly explained that these developments could be funded out of the $6.25 billion his Las Vegas-headquartered firm is due to pocket via the already agreed sale in Nevada of its The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and nearby Sands Expo and Convention Center properties.
Source: Worldcasinodirectory, Worldcasinonews
