The SAR government earned 7.78 billion patacas (US$967 million) from gaming taxes last month, an increase of almost 9 percent when compared to the 7.15 billion patacas (US$889 billion) that was registered in May.
Data from the Financial Services Bureau show that the current total marks an increase of around 29 percent against the 6.03 billion patacas (US$750 million) collected in June 2023.
The strong growth in gaming taxes reflects the significant gross gaming revenue (GGR) that was generated by the gaming concessionaires in May. That month witnessed a GGR of 20.2 billion patacas (US$2.5 billion), the highest recorded amount since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in February 2020.
[See more: Gaming tax made up 85 percent of Macao’s revenue between January and May]
For the first half of this year, the Macao government accumulated 44.79 billion patacas (US$5.57 billion) in gaming taxes. This number marks a surge of around 67 percent when compared to the 26.79 billion patacas (US$3.33 billion) that was earned during the first six months of last year.
The government’s 2024 budget indicates that it expects to bring in 83.61 billion patacas (US$10.4 billion) from gaming taxes this year, an amount that is significantly higher than the 65.26 billion patacas (US$8.11 billion) that was earned for the full year of 2023.
Overall, the government earned a total revenue of 52.74 billion patacas (US$6.55 billion) in the first six months of this year, with gaming tax revenue accounting for almost 85 percent of the total.
