For the primary time, Macau casinos will face a cap on the variety of desk video games and slot machines they’ll collectively supply throughout their flooring within the Chinese language gaming enclave.
The concessions for the six Macau on line casino operators expire at 12:01 am CST on January 1, 2023. Nonetheless, the native authorities is anticipated to difficulty the six corporations contemporary tenders earlier than their present licenses expire.
Macau’s subsequent gaming governing circumstances will embody working privileges operating solely 10 years — half of the 20-year present phrases. One other key change is that Macau will restrict the trade’s complete allotment of gaming positions.
The Macau authorities revealed that casinos shall be capped at 6,000 desk video games and 12,000 slots final Friday. Macau lawmakers determined to restrict the variety of gaming positions for the 2023-2033 regulatory surroundings to “management the size” and foster the “wholesome improvement” of the on line casino trade and area as an entire.
On the finish of 2021, Macau’s six on line casino giants counted 6,198 desk video games and 11,758 slots at their properties. Baccarat is the go-to recreation of alternative in Macau. The desk recreation is the most well-liked format in lots of Asian gaming markets.
Minimal Tax Set
Macau lawmakers tasked Chief Govt Ho Iat Seng with deciding a minimal gaming tax per machine and desk that the enclave will impose below the following regulatory regime. The area’s prime authorities official says he’ll afford the trade a comparatively gentle minimal tax.
Revealed via the Macau Gazette, the federal government’s official information supply, Ho demanded that every issued desk recreation generate a minimal of MOP7 million (US$866,000) in gross gaming income every year. Every slot machine should win MOP300,000 (US$37,000) from gamblers.
If the casinos benefit from the area’s full allotment of tables and slots, Ho’s minimal GGR requirement per seat/machine would equate to full-year income of roughly MOP45.6 billion (US$5.6 billion). By way of seven months of 2022, Macau’s gaming trade is simply forward of Ho’s forthcoming minimal tax tempo.
2022 is shaping as much as be the Macau gaming trade’s worst yr of the pandemic. GGR January via July this yr totaled $3.28 billion. By way of seven months of 2020, GGR was $4.32 billion. Casinos gained greater than $7 billion in the course of the first seven months of 2021.
Ho basing his future tax minimal obligations on 2022 income is welcomed information by the six operators, as most on line casino executives are hopeful that the trade has hit its pandemic backside.
Diversifying Business
Macau policymakers hope to reduce the area’s reliance on on line casino playing within the years forward. On line casino taxes earlier than the pandemic accounted for greater than 80 cents of each tax greenback obtained by the native authorities.
Macau was contemplating methods to diversify its financial system earlier than the pandemic. However the coronavirus solely heightened the necessity for the federal government to seek out new tax sources within the occasion of one other well being disaster that ends in lockdowns and the cessation of nonessential companies.
The limitation on gaming positions appears to worth high quality over amount. Solely two years in the past, Macau casinos ran upwards of 6,700 desk video games and 17,000 slot machines.