The Macau government collected MOP45.77 billion (US$5.68 billion) in fiscal revenue from taxes on gaming in the first nine months of this year, according to the latest data released by the city’s Financial Services Bureau.
The aggregate take for January to September was up 202.7 percent compared with the prior-year period, a time when Covid-19 -associated travel restrictions were still in place.
In September alone this year, the government collected approximately MOP6.65 billion in revenue from gaming taxes, up nearly 3.3 percent month-on-month from the August gain via gaming tax.
Under Macau’s new, 10-year gaming concession system that came into effect on January 1, the effective tax on casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) is 40 percent.
Macau’s casino GGR for the nine months to September 30 reached MOP128.95 billion, up 305.3 percent from the comparable 2022 period.
The tax-take figures in a given calendar period and the city’s casino GGR in such a time frame are not directly comparable for a number of reasons. They include the fact that there is typically a delay between the point where GGR is recorded in Macau casino operations and the point at which tax is registered by the Macau government as having been paid on such play.
According to the government’s budget plan, revenue from gaming taxes should reach just above MOP50.85 billion this year. The take for the first nine months of 2023 already represents 90.0 percent of that figure.
