Macao’s six concessionaires paid a collective 37 billion patacas ($4.6 billion) in gaming taxes in the first five months of the year – equating to 84.9 percent of total government revenue for the period, multiple gaming news outlets have reported.
The figure was a 25.4 percent increase on the same period last year, according to data from the Financial Services Bureau. In May alone, gaming taxes came in at 7.15 billion patacas (US$889 million).
The government has forecast gross gaming revenue (GGR) to hit 216 billion patacas in 2024, with revenue from gaming taxes amounting to about 83.6 billion patacas (US$10.4 billion) for the year. By the end of May, the government had raked in 44.3 percent of that latter projection.
[See more: Macao’s full-year gross gaming revenue could reach nearly US$30 billion]
However, the Hong Kong brokerage firm CLSA recently estimated that GGR would likely get closer to 240 billion patacas this year – based on increased visitor forecasts and a survey showing that mainland Chinese punters (Macao’s biggest market by far) intended to either maintain or even increase their gambling budgets this year.
Total government revenue for the January to May period, meanwhile, was 43.6 billion patacas (US$5.4 billion), a year-on-year increase of 72.3 percent. The 2024 budget forecast an overall haul of 107.11 billion patacas (US$13.3 billion), meaning that revenue is currently more than 40 percent of the way there.
The official tax rate on GGR is 35 percent, though the effective rate is slightly higher. Last year, the authorities collected a total of 65.26 billion patacas (US$8.1 billion) in gaming taxes.
