Macau’s casino industry is set for a “steady” gaming revenue performance in the near term, according to brokerage CLSA Ltd, whose latest survey of mainland Chinese consumers suggests that demand for visits to the city remains resilient.
The survey found that most respondents intended to maintain both their travel and gaming budgets for trips to Macau over the next 12 months.
A “healthy majority” of respondents – 79 percent – said they planned to visit Macau during the coming 12 months, with 27 percent of the total saying they expected to make multiple trips to the city, CLSA said.
“This indicates visitation to Macau will remain healthy. It also aligns with the fact that visitation numbers during the first five months of 2026 were 5.5 percent above the first five months of 2019’s level,” wrote CLSA analysts Jeffrey Kiang, Lance Noble and Alex Zheng.
The survey covered 800 Chinese nationals “with past experience with Macau gaming”. Nearly half of respondents (47 percent) were aged between 31 and 40, while 41 percent were aged between 21 and 30.
Among those surveyed, 54 percent lived in first-tier cities in the Chinese mainland and 38 percent in second-tier cities.
CLSA found that 59 percent of respondents identified non-gaming activities as the primary purpose of their visits to Macau, while the remaining 41 percent cited gambling – the highest proportion recorded since 2024.
Most respondents identified China’s October National Day and the Chinese New Year holiday periods as their preferred times to visit Macau. By contrast, interest in travelling during public holidays between April and June was lower than previously recorded.
CLSA noted: “In line with our findings last year, the propensity for travelling to Macau during ‘off-peak’ seasons remained at 11 percent of our current-year panellists. This suggests investors should still expect more evenly distributed gross gaming revenue before and after Golden Weeks in China, in particular during May Golden Week, based on our findings.”
Gaming budgets ‘intact‘
The CLSA survey found that 94 percent of respondents expected at least to maintain their travel budgets for Macau compared with previous visits. Some 82 percent of the total said they did not expect to reduce their gaming budgets.
Respondents’ expected wallet share for gaming in Macau “expanded year-on-year as this will be 24 percent of their travelling budgets this year, up from 19 percent in 2025,” the analysts said.
CLSA also found that higher-income respondents were more likely to increase their travel budgets for Macau than lower-income groups, suggesting that premium players continued to form the “mainstay” of the city’s gaming clientele.
The two highest income bands comprised respondents earning between CNY60,000 (US$8,849) and CNY69,999 a month, and those earning CNY70,000 or more.
“While 82 percent of our current-year panellists will not cut gaming budgets, the two highest income groups have the most meaningful portion of panellists planning to raise spending: 52 percent and 47 percent…, compared with the 23 percent to 40 percent of other income groups,” the analysts said.
They added: “Wages, renminbi [Chinese yuan] strength and stock market performance remain the three most prominent factors driving panellists’ bankrolls, with 52 percent, 48 percent and 39 percent of our panellists believing these directly determine the size.”
The survey also found that higher-income respondents tended to spend a greater proportion of their time in Macau gambling. Those earning CNY50,000 or more a month expected to devote between 26 percent and 32 percent of their stay to gaming, while respondents in lower income groups planned to spend a smaller proportion of their time gambling.
“Cash and Unionpay (both credit and debit cards) account for 44 percent and 49 percent, respectively, in our current-year panellists’ source of gaming budgets. This is in line with previous surveys. Also, 93 percent of our panellists will not gamble less in a scenario where digital renminbi is rolled out,” CLSA said.
More than half (54 percent) of respondents said they had no plans to visit casino jurisdictions other than Macau. They cited the ease of communication, proximity to the Chinese mainland and Macau’s reputation as a safe destination as the main reasons for choosing the city.
Among those planning to travel to overseas casino markets, Singapore and South Korea were the most popular destinations, according to CLSA.
