Macau Casino Revenue Surges 44.6% To $2.56 Billion In April 2011

The world’s largest gambling resort Macau saw its revenue increase by an impressive 44.6% in April to reach 20.51 billion Macanese patacas (US$2.56 billion).
April’s revenue represents the Chinese enclave’s biggest ever monthly income and incredibly Macau’s gaming industry has now broken the monthly revenue records four times over the past five months.
Furthermore, Carlo Santarelli from Wells Fargo is predicting yet another bumper month in May and said:
“Given the holiday and our sense of continued junket liquidity health, we would expect May to again break the monthly gross gaming revenue record.”
Since the beginning of the year analysts have been predicting a 29% increase in revenue for 2011 compared to the US$23.542 billion taken throughout 2010. So far, the first four months of 2011 have seen Macau’s thirty-three casinos generate US$9.879 billion in revenue, a rise of 43.3% over last year’s figure.
However, despite yet another record monthly high hit, analysts have warned against getting too carried away with the figure with RBS analyst Philip Tulk explaining:
“The 20.5 billion patacas reported for April will likely be seen as good but not great. While it represents another all-time record revenue month for Macau, we had seen estimates as high as 22.5 billion patacas.”
Nevertheless, any potential slowing down in gambling revenue growth would likely be welcome news to the Chinese government who have expressed their desire to see the enclave diversify towards a more balanced tourist industry.
In 2006, Macau overtook Las Vegas as the world’s most popular gambling resort and has been steadily extending its advantage over its nearest rival ever since. Macau’s revenue is now expected to reach five times that of the Las Vegas Strip’s by the end of 2011.