Casinos in Macao paid some 12.31 billion patacas (1.56 billion U.S. dollars) as direct gaming taxes to the Special Administrative Region (SAR) government in the first four months of 2009, which dropped by 15.7 percent compared with the same period of last year, according to the figures Wednesday released by the SAR's Finance Services Bureau (DSF).

The SAR government raked in 3.43 billion patacas (434 million dollars) in April alone in gaming taxes, which was 560 million patacas (70.9 million dollars) more than the previous month.

Meanwhile, Macao, the only place in China where gambling is legal, saw its April gaming revenues reach 8.3 billion patacas (1. 05 billion dollars), decreasing by 8.5 percent year-on-year, according to Lusa, the Portugal news agency.

Under the SAR's relevant regulations, local casinos must pay nearly 40 percent of their total revenues to the SAR government as direct gaming taxes and required contributions to the island city' s government-run foundation and local tourism promotions. Being the staple of local economy, taxes levied on the gaming sector accounted for over 70 percent of the SAR government's total revenues.

As for the government's gross revenues for the period between January and April, the figure stood at 14.84 billion patacas (1.88 billion dollars), which dropped 15.7 percent compared with the same period of last year, according to the DSF.

The government's total expenditure amounted to 5.76 billion patacas (729 million dollars), while overall surplus reached 9.084 billion patacas (1.15 billion dollars) in the first four months of this year, the DSF said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2009)