In Macau, the government has reportedly revealed that direct taxes from gaming for the first nine months of 2017 rose by 17.5% year-on-year to hit $8.54 billion and account for some 80.9% of all state revenues.

According to a report from GGRAsia citing provisional figures from the former Portuguese enclave’s Financial Services Bureau, the period’s taxes were far above the $7.26 billion collected from Macau’s over 30 casinos during the first nine months of 2016. The more recent January to May tally of $4.64 billion had represented a year-on-year increase of about 12.4%.

Macau levies an effective tax rate of 39% on all of its casinos’ gross gaming revenues and the government earlier conservatively predicted that this tally for 2017 would reach in excess of $24.89 billion, which would give it approximately $8.94 billion in tax with which to play.

GGRAsia reported that Macau’s government reported a fiscal surplus of just over $4.34 billion for the initial nine months of 2017, which represented a swell of 61.9% year-on-year. Its earlier tax collection prediction is now 95.5% complete and could result in the eventual figure reaching as high as $11.38 billion.