But September tax haul the highest since 2019
Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) has published its latest quarterly report for the period ending September 30th (3Q23) revealing that gross gaming revenue (GGR) was down by 6.7% on 2019’s pre-pandemic figures.
Baccarat made up 60.8% of all revenues
According to the report, baccarat tables accounted for 60.8% of all gaming revenue during the quarter, up from the 58.4% share reported in the previous quarter. This was also significantly higher than the 43.1% share of mass GGR reported in Q3 of 2019.
VIP baccarat revenue accounted for 24% of all gaming revenue in Q3. This was a slight drop from the 26.6% reported in the previous quarter. By comparison, in 3Q19 VIP baccarat accounted for 43.8% of all revenue while in the same quarter in 2013 it generated 64.6% of total GGR.
Mass table gaming revenue accounted for 74.4% of total revenue for the reporting period.
Overall GGR was down by 6.7% on pre-pandemic levels reported in 3Q19. However, it was up by 11.1% on the previous quarter.
Tax Windfall
The Macau government has also reported that it collected a total of MOP$45.8 billion ($5.68 billion) for the first nine months of 2023 This represents a 203% increase year-on-year.
According to the report, in September alone, the government collected MOP$6.65 billion ($826 million), an increase of 3.3% on the previous month. This represents the highest monthly tax total since the start of the pandemic. September’s figures are derived from August’s GGR totals that saw the local gaming industry generate a post-pandemic high of MOP$17.21 billion ($2.12 billion) in revenue.
September saw the government generate taxes of MOP$57.5 billion ($7.14 billion),with gaming tax contributing 79.6% to the total tax take.
