Macau Casino Win Tops Expectations, Revenue Climbs to $2.42B – Casino.Org News

Posted on: April 1, 2024, 09:43h.

Last updated on: April 1, 2024, 09:50h.

The Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau reported Monday that the enclaves casinos won MOP19.5 billion (US$2.42 billion) from gamblers in March.

March 2024 marked a more than 53% year-over-year boost and was 5.5% better than February when the city hosted many Chinese New Year travelers. March outpaced the consensus forecast among analysts focused on the region the only place under Chinas control where slot machines and table games are allowed which predicted a 49% year-over-year improvement.

March was Macaus second-richest monthly casino win since the city reopened its borders in January 2023.

Through three months of 2024, GGR in what was the worlds richest gaming market before the COVID-19 pandemic a title since reclaimed by Nevada has rebounded 65.5% from the same period in 2023. The regions six casino licensees Sands, Galaxy, MGM, Wynn, SJM, and Melco won $7.11 billion in the first quarter.

Macau has a vastly different operating climate for the six casino concession holders than it did pre-pandemic. China used the global health crisis to improve its national security, and a pillar of the undertaking was preventing large amounts of money stop fleeing the Communist Partys control.

During the health crisis, Beijing instructed Macau to more closely scrutinize casino junket groups that for years had brought the mainlands wealthiest VIP gamblers to the Special Administrative Region (SAR) to gamble in private high-roller rooms. China President Xi Jinping levied accusations that junkets facilitated the transfer of large amounts of cash through the tax haven. The Chinese leader says that poised national security risks.

Macau, a tax haven that operates under Chinas One Country, Two Systems policy that gives the region a high degree of governance autonomy, agreed to crack down on the VIP travel industry to limit the illicit flow of money from the mainland to Macau for the specific purpose to gamble. As a result, junkets are largely gone from Macau.

That has forced the six casino companies, which have invested many billions of dollars each into their resorts around town, to switch their focus to the general and premium mass public.

Some Macau analysts believe the casinos have already successfully pivoted to the general and coveted premium mass-public demographics.

Those market observers are optimistic about 2024 and the years ahead. Analysts at JPMorgan said last week there are no signs of an impending slowdown. Other brokerages arent so convinced.

March GGR was a significant improvement from March 2023, but the $2.42 billion represents 75% of the pre-pandemic March 2019 revenue. Since China and Macau began reopening their borders to international traffic by ending zero-COVID in late 2022, the best month related to 2019 was December 2023 when GGR returned to 81% of the pre-pandemic level.

Macaus post-COVID recovery path is slowing as Chinas economic growth loses momentum, Shirley Zhao and Katia Dmitrieva, economics correspondents for Bloomberg, said Monday. Slowing growth came despite rising numbers of tourists, suggesting per person spending weakened amid deteriorating consumer sentiment.

Paired with the public possibly scaling back their spending are ongoing rising costs for the casinos. Along with inflation, the casinos continue to meet their nongaming investment obligations as dictated through their 2022 relicensing terms.

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Macau Casino Win Tops Expectations, Revenue Climbs to $2.42B - Casino.Org News

Bridger Aerospace Announces Schedule for its Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Release and Conference Call – GlobeNewswire

BELGRADE, Mont., March 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bridger Aerospace Group Holdings, Inc. (Bridger or Bridger Aerospace), (NASDAQ: BAER, BAERW), one of the nations largest aerial firefighting companies, today announced that it will release financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 after the market close.

Management will conduct an investor conference call on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (3:00 p.m. Mountain Time) to discuss these results and its business outlook. Interested parties can access the conference call by dialing 800-274-8461 or 203-518-9783. The conference call will also be broadcast live on the Investor Relations section of our website at https://ir.bridgeraerospace.com.

An audio replay will be available through March 26, 2024, by calling 844-512-2921 or 412-317-6671 and using the passcode 1155141. The replay will also be accessible at https://ir.bridgeraerospace.com.

About Bridger Aerospace Based in Belgrade, Montana, Bridger Aerospace Group Holdings, Inc. is one of the nations largest aerial firefighting companies. Bridger provides aerial firefighting and wildfire management services to federal and state government agencies, including the United States Forest Service, across the nation, as well as internationally. More information about Bridger Aerospace is available at https://www.bridgeraerospace.com.

Investor Contacts Alison Ziegler Darrow Associates 201-220-2678 aziegler@darrowir.com

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Bridger Aerospace Announces Schedule for its Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Release and Conference Call - GlobeNewswire

Donald Trump’s ‘miracle drug’ for COVID killed nearly 17000 people, reveals new study – Hindustan Times

A drug promoted by former US President Donald Trump to cure COVID-19 has been linked to nearly 17,000 deaths, according to a new study. During the COVID pandemic, Trump urged Americans to take hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an anti-malaria medicine that is also often used to cure rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, claiming that he himself had been taking the miracle drug.

After the outbreak of coronavirus, scientists suggested that HCQ could be effective in treating the deadly virus. On March 28, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug for an emergency use authorisation and started clinical trials.

While one scientist called the HCQ a "magic bullet" against coronavirus, Trump highlighted the "miracle" recovery made by a COVID infected woman after using the drug.

"The nice part is, it's been around for a long time...if things don't go as planned, it's not going to kill anybody," the ex-US president said during a COVID Taskforce briefing. In a tweet on March 21, 2020, he said that "FDA has moved mountains" and that the drug would be put to use "immediately" as an antidote to curb Covid transmission.

However in June 2020, the FDA revoked the emergency use authorisation of the drug as several studies, including one by New England Journal of Medicine, found HCQ had no benefit on COVID and led to significant surge in the risk of death. The FDA revoked the emergency use authorization on June 15, 2020.

A new study conducted by French researchers has found that nearly 17,000 people across six countries may have died after being prescribed hydroxychloroquine while hospitalized with the illness from March to July 2020 during the first wave of COVID. The research published in the February issue of Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy shows that increase in the number of deaths was driven by side effects like heart arrhythmia and muscle weakness.

The countries studied were the US, Turkey, Belgium, France, Spain, and Italy.

The US reported the highest numbers of deaths with 12,739, followed by Spain (1,895 deaths), Italy (1,822 deaths), Belgium (240 deaths), France (199 deaths), and Turkey (95 deaths).

The scientists analysed various studies that tracked hospitalisations due to COVID-19 and exposure to the drug and risk related to it.

The researchers said that the number of deaths could be much higher as their study only looked at only six countries between March and July 2020.

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Donald Trump's 'miracle drug' for COVID killed nearly 17000 people, reveals new study - Hindustan Times