June 16, 2006 | Xinhua News |The government of the Macau Special Administrative Region has collected 7.7 billion patacas (US$963 million) in direct gaming taxes in the first five months, a year-on-year rise of 17.4 percent.

The statistics issued Friday by the Finance Services Bureau (FSB) showed that the gaming taxes accounted for 73.8 percent of the government total revenue in the period.

Macau's direct gaming taxes reached a record 16.56 billion patacas (US$2.07 billion) in 2005, a year-on-year rise of 12 percent, according to official statistics issued earlier this year.

Macau's 21 casinos pay 35 percent of their gross receipts as direct tax to the government.

The region, with a population of nearly 500,000, has a 150-year history of gaming industry and is the only part of China where casino gaming is legitimate.