Macau gaming tax revenue tops US$8.3billion

The Macau government has confirmed that it has now collected MOP67.21billion (US$8.32 billion) in the tax revenue from the city’s gaming industry in the first seven months of 2019. The tax from the gaming sector is up nearly 2.3percent so far this year. 

The Financial Services Bureau releases the data annually to indicate the general health of the city’s income. The figures, which were published on Thursday, show the sum collected so far this year is 68.4 percent of the amount of tax revenue from the gaming industry the government has budgeted for the whole year. The government forecasts it will collect about MOP98.23 billion this year from the gaming sector. 

The latest reports indicate that revenue collected from gaming this year accounted for 89.8 percent of the MOP74.81 billion the government collected from all sources. 

At the moment, the government’s current revenue from all sources amounts to 65.1 percent of the amount budgeted for over the course of the whole year.

In effect, the government taxes the gross gaming revenue of Macau casinos at a rate of 35 percent, but other levies on casino gaming raise the tax rate to 39 percent. Taxes on the Macau gaming industry also include levies on the income of Chinese traditional lotteries, horseracing, instant lotteries and tax on commissions earned by operators of gambling junkets.

In calculating its budget, the government tends to air on the side of caution and is always careful about estimating the amount that it takes from gaming. The government has budgeted for a fiscal surplus of more than MOP18.06 billion for the whole of 2019. At the end of July, its surplus was MOP35.60 billion, official figures indicate.