The government of Macau has reportedly announced that the city’s 39 casinos handed over almost $117.12 million in aggregated gaming taxes for October to take their combined ten-month tally to just above $3.04 billion.

According to a report from Inside Asian Gaming, the figure for last month represented a rise of 54.8% when compared with the about $75.65 million collected for September but was nevertheless nearly 91% lower than the around $1.29 billion amassed for the same 31-day period last year. The source moreover detailed that the aggregated ten-month reckoning equates to a decline in the region of 74% when balanced against the approximately $11.77 billion brought in over the course of the identical 2019 cycle.

Demanded duties:

Macau is home to some of the world’s largest and most famous gambling venues including the iconic Casino Grand Lisboa from SJM Holdings Limited and Melco Resorts and Entertainment Limited’s $3.2 billion Studio City Macau. All of these operations are reportedly required to pay a 35% gross gaming revenues tax alongside smaller duties for every live dealer table, gaming machine and VIP room they operate that takes the effective rate up to roughly 39%.

Pandemic plunge:

Despite its popularity among gamblers, the city of some 696,000 people has recently been struggling to attract foreign visitors due to the implementation of a range coronavirus-related restrictions that have severely limited travel from Hong Kong and mainland China. As a consequence and the enclave’s ten-month aggregated gross gaming revenues currently sit about 81.4% lower year-on-year at slightly beyond $5.74 billion and could very well end 2020 in the region of $8.24 billion.

Extraordinary excess:

However, the Macau government still reportedly managed to chalk up a budgetary surplus of almost $1.41 billion for the first ten months of 2020 although this figure was a little beyond 76.6% down in comparison with the slightly over $6 billion it brought in during the same period last year.