Casino revenue in Macao in 2008 rose 31 percent year-on-year to a record high of 108.7 billion patacas (13.7 billion U.S. dollars), according to the figures released Friday by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

The DICJ figures showed that the SAR, the only place in China where gaming is legal, registered casino revenue of 24.7 billion patacas (3.12 billion dollars) in the fourth quarter last year, dropping 7 percent compared with the previous quarter, and decreasing 0.25 percent year-on-year.

Gaming revenues of the SAR stood at 83.8 billion patacas (10.6 billion dollars) in 2007, growing 45.7 percent over the previous year.

By far, the SAR, with a population of only 550,000, has 31 casinos, 19 of which are run by the local gaming company SJM, but the largest one, Venetian Macao casino resort, is operated by the Las Vegas Sands.

According to the DICJ, there were 4,017 gaming tables and 11,856 slot machines in Macao's casinos in the fourth quarter of last year, down 300 and 1,000 respectively over the previous quarter.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2009)