The government of the Macao Special Administrative Region has collected 12.47 billion patacas (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) in direct gaming taxes in the first eight months of the year, a year-on-year rise of 14.4 percent.
The statistics issued Tuesday by the Finance Services Bureau (FSB) showed that the gaming taxes accounted for 73 percent of the government total revenue in the period.
As reported by China Economic Net – Macao’s direct gaming taxes reached a record 16.56 billion patacas (2.07 billion dollars) in 2005, a year-on-year rise of 12 percent, according to official statistics issued earlier this year.
Macao’s 22 casinos pay 35 percent of their gross receipts as direct tax to the government.
The region, with a population of over 500,000, has a 150-year history of gaming industry.
