The Macau government raked in gaming tax of MOP$33.91 billion (US$4.22 billion) in 2021, according to details published by the Financial Services Bureau.
The figure represents a 13.8% increase over the MOP$29.81 billion (US$3.73 billion) collected in 2020, although it falls well short of the MOP$50 billion (MOP$6.22 billion) the government had originally estimated under its annual budget for the year.
The annual budget for 2022 predicts gaming tax of MOP$49.76 billion (US$61.93 billion), with the government having collected gaming tax of MOP$3.26 billion (US$405.7 million) in January, up 1.5% year-on-year.
The final gaming tax figure for 2021 comes after the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau previously announced full year gross gaming revenue of MOP$86.86 billion (US$10.82 billion), representing a 43.7% improvement on 2020 but down 70.3% compared with 2019.
GGR was negatively impacted by ongoing border restrictions impacting visitation from mainland China. The 2021 visitor tally of 7,705,943 was still 80.0% lower than in 2019.
Gaming revenue was also impacted by China’s crackdown on cross-border gambling activities which ultimately saw Suncity Group shut down its junket business following the arrest of CEO Alvin Chau in late November. Tak Chun’s Levo Chan was also detained in January, with analysts predicting GGR from the VIP sector will fall significantly in 2022.
