The government’s income from gross gaming revenue taxes fell 56.5 percent year-on-year to 21.0 billion patacas (US$2.6 billion), the Macau Financial Services Bureau (DSF) announced this week.
Gross gaming revenue (GGR) is defined as the difference between the amount of money gamblers wager minus the amount that they win. Macau’s six rival gaming operators pay 35 percent of their GGR as direct tax to the government.
GGR taxes generated 83.4 percent of the government’s total current revenue of 25.2 billion patacas in the first five months of this year. In the same period of last year, income from GGR taxes accounted for 90.6 percent of the government’s total current revenue.
The government’s total revenue between January and May fell 26.8 percent to 40.61 billion patacas. Capital revenue accounted for 37.9 percent of the governments’ total revenue in the five-month period.
Total expenditure rose 38.1 percent to 32.38 billion patacas, resulting in a surplus of 8.23 billion patacas.
Macau has been severely affected by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism, gaming, retail and media sectors in particular.
