Macao recorded 3,992 gaming tables and 11,500 slot machines in the third quarter, seeing year-on-year rise of 63.6 percent and 35.2 percent respectively, local media reported Friday.

Macao Daily News, the leading local Chinese-language newspaper, reported that however, the payoff rate of the gaming tables and slot machines are seeing slide-down due to the increasing competition.

The city, with a population of merely 580,000, has currently 27 casinos under operation.

The number of casinos is expected to reach 29 by the end of 2007 in the city where some 15 percent of its total labor force are working in the gaming sector.

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

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2007)