The Macau government collected in April just above MOP4.95 billion (US$613.3 million) in fiscal revenue from taxes on gaming, according to the latest available data, released on Tuesday by the city’s Financial Services Bureau. The April figure was equivalent to nearly half of the MOP10.11-billion gaming tax revenue collected in the first three months of the year.
In the four months to April 30, the government collected just below MOP15.07 billion in fiscal revenue from taxes on gaming, up 47.6 percent from the prior-year period.
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 reached MOP14.72 billion in April, up 15.6 percent from March. The April result was the best monthly performance since January 2020 – prior to the onset of the pandemic alert.
Casino GGR stood at MOP49.36 billion in the four months to April 30, an increase of 141.4 percent from a year earlier.
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.
The Macau government has previously said it estimates the city’s 2023 casino GGR will be MOP130 billion.
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 four months of the year represents 29.6 percent of that figure.
