The Macau government collected just above MOP22.20 billion (US$2.78 billion) in fiscal revenue from gaming in the first three months of 2025, up 0.2 percent from the prior-year period, according to data released on Thursday by the city’s Financial Services Bureau.
Under Macau’s 10-year gaming concession system that came into effect on January 1, 2023, the effective tax on casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) is 40 percent.
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.
In March alone, the government collected MOP7.95 billion in gaming taxes, showed the latest data.
According to the government’s 2025 budget plan, revenue from gaming taxes is anticipated to reach nearly MOP93.12 billion this year. The take for the first quarter this year represents 23.8 percent of that figure.
The latest data showed that taxes from gaming brought in 88.4 percent of the Macau government’s nearly MOP25.10-billion current revenue recorded in the three months to March 31.
Aggregate casino GGR in the first three months of 2025 totalled MOP57.66 billion, up 0.6 percent on the same period in 2024, according to official data. It represented 24.0 percent of the Macau government’s MOP240 billion forecast for this year.
A number of brokerages have recently reduced their respective forecasts for Macau’s casino GGR.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund reduced Macau’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 3.6 percent this year, from a previous estimate of 7.3 percent.
Macau’s leader, Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai, stated in the government’s Policy Address for Fiscal Year 2025, outlined in mid-April, that the public budget might need to be revised for a number of reasons, including the GGR outlook for the year, and some spending commitments still to be factored.
