Macao’s government collected 8.11 billion patacas (US$1 billion) in gaming taxes in July, an increase of almost 19 percent when compared to the 6.83 billion patacas (US$844.75 million) registered in the same month last year, data from the Financial Services Bureau shows.
The figure brought cumulative fiscal revenue from gaming up to 53.37 billion patacas (US$6.65 billion) for the first seven months of the year – a more modest year-on-year rise of 3.4 percent that reflects casinos’ sluggish start to 2025.
The city’s six gaming concessionaires are taxed at an effective rate of 40 percent of their GGR, and gaming taxes accounted for 86.3 percent of the government’s current revenue of 61.86 billion patacas (US$7.65 billion) for the year to 31 July.
[See more: Analysts forecast a second-half surge in Macao’s gross gaming revenue]
Gross gaming revenue (GGR) saw marked improvements in May and June, with the latter being the month from which July’s gaming taxes were calculated.
August’s tax-take is expected to be the year’s largest yet, as casinos generated 22.12 billion patacas (US$2.74 billion) in GGR – a post-pandemic high, and a year-on-year jump of 19 percent.
While the government cut its GGR forecast for the year to just 0.5 percent back in June, resulting in a budget revision, some analysts are now predicting far stronger year-on-year growth of 7 percent.
