The government of the Macao Special Administrative Region has collected 17.99 billion patacas (2.25 billion U.S. dollars) in direct gaming taxes in the first 11 months of the year, a year-on-year rise of 18.3 percent.

The statistics issued Tuesday by the Finance Services Bureau (FSB) showed that the gaming taxes accounted for 71.8 percent of the government total revenue in the period.

Macao's 23 casinos pay 35 percent of their gross receipts as direct tax to the government.

The region, with a population of 508,000, has a 150-year history of gaming industry and is the only part of China where casino gaming is legitimate.

Source: Xinhua