Macau casinos are off to a good start this year as gross gaming revenue (GGR) climbed 36.4 percent in January, with both the VIP and the mass market remaining vibrant.

Figures provided by Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) showed that Macau’s casino GGR climbed to MOP26.26 billion (US$3.26 billion) in January compared with the MOP19.3 billion ($2.4 billion) it posted in the same month last year.

The sum well above financial analysts’ expectation of between 25 and 30 percent year-on-year.

“We estimate VIP GGR was up 50 percent year-on-year (versus 22 percent year-on-year in fourth quarter) and mass GGR was +22 percent to 24 percent year-on-year (versus +17 percent year-on-year in fourth quarter), both of which showed big accelerations from recent trends and beat recent expectations, partly helped by easy comps (given Chinese New Year calendar shift) and VIP luck,” international brokerage JP Morgan Securities said in a Thursday note.