Macau investors can breathe a bit easier. After three consecutive disappointing months, Macau casino revenue for August clocked in at 26.6 billion patacas (MOP; US$3.3 billion), up 17.1% from a year earlier, when Typhoon Hato ravaged the city and its gaming business. But this August’s robust growth was about more than better weather. Despite some proverbial “interesting times” for Macau gaming, the growth story based on transition from VIP gambling center to a mass market based tourist destination continues.

Following the precipitous drop that began in June 2014, this year’s nervousness – and collective Macau casino share price declines approaching double digits through second half earnings announcements – are undeniably real. The 2014-16 slump saw casino revenue tumble by 38% and share prices fare far worse. Gross gaming revenue in May, June and July disappointed industry watchers, though profits for the last four quarters through Q2 2018 match the sector’s record for the 2013-14 pre-crash peak, according to Union Gaming Managing Director in Macau Grant Govertsen.

Lagging VIP revenue growth heightened recent investor worries. VIP has largely led headline gaming revenue growth since late last year. However, analysts contended that despite the VIP surge, the real strength lay in Macau’s burgeoning mass market, especially at the so-called premium mass end. Of course, these same analysts expressed little concern in mid-2014, even as the sky began falling.

August revenue numbers should lessen the compulsion to worry. While May and June revenue growth came in below forecasts at 12.1% and 12.5% respectively and July’s 10.3% was at the very bottom of the consensus range, August’s 17.1% growth was at the high end of estimates: JPMorgan Regional Gaming and Lodging Analyst DS Kim called it “a beat” in a client note. Beyond the weather factor – last month had one typhoon warning, as opposed to 2017’s devastation from Hato – August GGR was the second highest total for any month since October 2014.

JPMorgan estimates VIP revenue grew 12-13% last month and mass grew 21-23%, both figures accelerated from the previous month. Those numbers fit the narrative of the casino capital’s transition from a high roller haven to a center for tourism and leisure in line with the wishes of government officials in Beijing and Macau. University of Nevada Las Vegas International Gaming Institute Executive Director Bo Bernhard calls it the “Las Vegasization” of Macau.

Morgan Stanley Asia Equity Analyst Praveen Choudhary notes that Macau’s non-gaming revenue represents 11.6% of operators’ gross revenue, an increase of 49% from 2011. However the non-gaming proportion is down from 12.8% in 2016 and 12.4% last year, as gaming revenue outgrew non-gaming. In a series of Macau number analyses with Morgan Stanley Research Associate Jeremy An, Choudhary notes that mass revenue follows hotel revenue per available room (RevPAR), and RevPAR fell in the second quarter.

Nevertheless, Macau’s gaming revenue is trending the right way. For investors with confidence in Macau’s long term success, the knock back in stock prices represents a buying opportunity. Investment advisory Sanford Bernstein’s Macau team, led by senior analyst Vitaly Umansky, upgraded Wynn Macau ahead of the August numbers, claiming it had been “overly penalized” by a small miss in second quarter earnings and undue concern over its high end targeting. In fact, Wynn Palace and Sands China’s Parisian each launched within a month focused on opposite ends of the overnight visitor market, a segment that keeps growing, and each have moved away from the edge toward the middle.

If you’re an investor looking for a wall of worry to climb – or to jump from – note that September marks the 26^th month of Macau’s current recovery, matching the length of the previous devastating downturn. But from continuing property ramp-ups including MGM Cotai and Melco Resort’s Morpheus plus repositionings to major infrastructure improvements such as the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge, there’s a lot of underlying support for Macau’s continued growth. Now we’re just arguing over pace.