The Macau government collected approximately MOP1.77 billion (US$220.5 million) in tax revenue from the gaming industry in September this year, down by 45.9 percent from MOP3.27 billion collected in August, according to the latest information announced by the city’s Financial Services Bureau.
Macau casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) rose 32.4 percent sequentially in September, to MOP5.88 billion, compared to MOP4.44 billion in August, when a Covid-19 alert in Macau had seen a sharp dip in tourism to the city.
But Macau’s 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.
For the first nine months of this year, the Macau government has collected approximately MOP27.23 billion in gaming tax, representing an increase of 16.3 percent when compared with the same period last year.
With September’s gaming tax take, the Macau government achieved 54.5 percent of the MOP50.01-billion that it had estimated to achieve for full-year 2021, according to its current budget plan.
The government taxes the GGR of Macau casinos at a rate of 35 percent, but other levies on the casino gaming gross, raise the tax rate to 39 percent in effect.
Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lei Wai Nong, told local media in September that the government would “definitely” adjust its full-year forecast for casino GGR, which would be included in a revised budget plan to be submitted to the Legislative Assembly later this year.
The Macau government was originally forecasting 2021 casino GGR of MOP130 billion. That was prior to Macau’s reports of local Covid-19 Delta variant infection cases in August and October, which subsequently affected the city’s casino revenue.
