Gambling at Macao’s casinos netted 7.16 billion patacas (US$892.9 million) in taxes last month, up nearly 5 percent from July, according to the latest provisional data published by the Financial Services Bureau.
The haul means that the government collected 58.78 billion patacas (US$7.37 billion) in such taxes during the first eight months of the year – up more than 50 percent compared with the same period in 2023.
Officials figures also show that taxes from gambling brought in nearly 85 percent of the local government’s revenue from the start of the year up to the end of August, with total revenue exceeding 69.4 billion patacas (US$8.7 billion).
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The total for the first eight months of the year represents more than 70 percent of the 83.61 billion patacas (US$10.49 billion) the government plans to raise in gambling taxes in 2024.
Last year, the Macau authorities collected 65.26 billion patacas (US$8.18 billion) in such taxes over the course of the year – more than 28 percent than what it had budgeted for.
The effective tax rate on gross gaming revenue in the SAR is 40 percent.
