Casino Stocks Tumble on New Year's Slump

Macau casinos hit lunar new year cold streak

Barclays estimates that average daily table revenues in Macau were HK$510.5m (US$66m) for the week to February 23, a period including five days in the holiday period, compared with HK$541m the week before. Phoebe Tse, the bank’s gaming analyst, said the figures were “much weaker than we had anticipated”.

...Shares in Wynn Macau and Melco Crown Entertainment sank almost 6 per cent on Wednesday, while Sands China fell 5.6 per cent and Galaxy Entertainment Group shed 4.9 per cent.
The stocks tumbled as much as 8 per cent during the trading session, which saw Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index finish with a gain of 0.1 per cent. Many gaming companies have seen their share prices fall as much as 50 per cent over the past 12 months as the troubles facing the sector have mounted.

Even the Cambodian casino stocks are selling off though.

Beijing's glare deepens crisis in Macau

During a recent visit to four of the city's glitziest casinos, VIP rooms were mostly desolate, with some shuttered and one boarded up, their tables covered with wood and white cloth.

At nearby pawn shops and jewellers, used by many gamblers to evade China's strict currency controls, and at money remittance agents in the Chinese border city of Zhuhai, there are fewer customers about.

In February last year, operators of the Chinese-controlled enclave's 35 casinos were riding high, their revenues for the month up 40 percent year on year. This year, February revenues are expected to fall 40 percent, having fallen in each of the previous eight months, too.