August could be a really good month for Macau casinos. Two brokerages have reported that they expect the city’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) to increase to between $3.22 and $3.27 billion.  This would be an increase of 15-17% over what the casinos reported in August of last year.

Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd expects the GGR to hit between $3.24 and $3.27 billion for the month, an increase of 16-17% year-on-year. The analysis is based on “channel checks,” which are generated from unofficial financial returns. For the latest week ending August 19, the company said that Macau’s GGR averaged out to a little more than $104 million, in line with what it had previously predicted.

The August forecast assumes a daily average of between $100.8 and $103.2 million from now until the end of the month. As usual, the forecasts carry the caveat that they are subject to volatility in VIP gaming revenue.

Nomura, the brokerage firm out of Japan, predicts slightly lower GGR, but still expects to see an improvement over last year. Nomura analysts said that the GGR would be right at $3.22 billion.  It notes that the GGR growth for July and August should be comparable to the trailing six-year median, which was around 3%.