Casinos’ take strengthened last week, says RBC

Gaming revenue was 7.2 percent higher in the week ended Sunday than the previous seven days, an RBC Capital Markets analyst says. The casinos took a daily rate of about MOP1.1 billion (US$137.69 million) last week according to analyst John Kempf, quoted by Barron’s online. “The increase was somewhat surprising, given our belief that the rate would decline leading into the Chinese New Year holiday, which begins on January 31,” he said. RBC says this month’s gaming revenue will be 17 percent higher than a year earlier. Meanwhile, Sterne Agee’s David Bain says table-only gross gaming revenue stood at MOP19.2 billion on Sunday. The brokerage says monthly revenue will fall between MOP31.7 billion and MOP32.5 billion, about 18 percent to 21 percent more than a year earlier.