KUALA LUMPUR (May 18): Singapore’s casino duopoly and, to a lesser extent, Malaysia’s Resorts World Genting could suffer a short-term hit to their gaming revenues in the coming months as premium players increasingly fly to Macau, according to a new research report by Nomura analysts.

Citing analysts Tushar Mohata and Alpa Aggarwal, industry magazine Inside Asian Gaming said the number of people travelling to Macau from Singapore and Malaysia had been steadily increasing since China’s border restrictions were relaxed in January, with around 4,000 visitors from each country visiting Macau in March alone — representing 43% for Singapore and 24% for Malaysia of pre-Covid levels.

Many of these, they added, are likely to be VIP and premium-mass players from visiting Macau after almost three years of border restrictions.

“Premium players have a higher propensity to gamble in different jurisdictions because of better affordability,” they said, noting that the impact would be felt by casino operators back home, particularly in Singapore.

“In the near term, this might lead to some gross gaming revenue which was ‘accruing to’ Singapore and Malaysia casinos to shift to Macau due to pent-up demand.

“Given Singapore’s more premium mix vs Malaysia’s most domestic-oriented customer base, we believe the impact will be somewhat more pronounced for Singapore casinos.

“However, we believe any negative impact of this GGR (gross gaming revenue) shift is likely to be minimised as the initial pent-up travel demand to Macau stabilises after the first few months,” said the analysts.