The Finance Services Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region government raked in a record 9.25 billion patacas (US$1.15 billion) in gaming taxes in the first eight months of this year.

The bureau's statistics released Friday showed the year-on-year tax increase amounted to 50.3 percent in the first eight months.

For the whole of last year, the government collected 10.17 billion patacas (US$1.27 billion) in gaming taxes.

The following tourist boom in October and December is expected to further boost the revenue of the gaming sector, which contributes to 76 percent of the government's tax revenue, according to the bureau's August statistics.

During the period, the government's budget surplus reached 5.56 billion patacas (US$695 million), an increase of 121.7 percent from the same period of last year.

(Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2004)