Gambling at Macao’s casinos netted 51.62 billion patacas (US$6.43 billion) in tax revenue for the government during the first seven months of the year, according to the latest provisional data published by the Financial Services Bureau.
That was 15.2 percent more gaming tax than was collected in the same period of 2023, and represented just under 62 percent of what the government has forecast for its total 2024 tally (83.61 billion patacas).
July’s haul meant that 83.9 percent of Macao’s total revenue for the first seven months of the year stemmed from gambling.
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Gross gaming revenue (GGR) for July reached 18.6 billion patacas, bringing the total for the year to 132.3 billion patacas.
At the same time, there were 6.83 billion patacas in fiscal revenue generated last month, less than the 7.37 billion patacas monthly average recorded during the January-to-July period. However, as Macao’s tax-take and GGR figures do not align by month due to tax registration delays, July’s gaming tax figures likely pertain to June’s weaker performance.
In 2023, Macao’s government collected 65.26 billion billion in fiscal revenue from gambling – a 28.3 percent surplus on what had been budgeted. The effective tax rate on gross gaming revenue in the SAR is 40 percent.
