Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total receipts of the 10 enterprises engaging in gaming activities increased by 18.7% year-on-year to MOP268.01 billion, marking an end to the downward trend over three consecutive years since 2014. Receipts from Gaming & Related Services grew by 18.7% to MOP267.86 billion, with receipts from gaming (MOP266.54 billion) and food & beverage (MOP567 million) rising by 18.9% and 11.9% respectively. Meanwhile, interest receipts dropped by 10.9% year-on-year to MOP147 million owing to a decrease in deposits.
Total expenditure of the gaming sector amounted to MOP114.89 billion, up by 18.5% year-on-year, of which expenditure on Purchase of Goods, Commission Paid & Customer Rebate rose by 23.0% to MOP60.86 billion, taking up 53.0% of the total. Operating Expenses increased by 16.7% year-on-year to MOP27.94 billion, which were mainly incurred on complimentary goods & services (such as hotel accommodation and food & beverage) provided to customers (MOP12.60 billion), management services & contractual services (MOP5.18 billion) and marketing & publicity (MOP4.79 billion), up by 16.5%, 32.3% and 12.0% respectively. Compensation of Employees went up by 7.4% year-on-year to MOP21.33 billion. Meanwhile, Non-operating Expenses (including depreciation and interest paid) totalled MOP4.76 billion, representing an increase of 30.5% year-on-year.
Gross Value Added that measures the sectoral contribution to economy totalled MOP179.07 billion, up by 17.6% year-on-year. Gross Surplus of the sector amounted to MOP157.74 billion, up by 19.1%; Gross Surplus Ratio edged up by 0.2 percentage points to 58.9%. Following the completion of several large-scale tourism and gaming facilities in 2016, Gross Fixed Capital Formation of the gaming sector in 2017 plunged by 87.2% from the MOP7.43 billion in 2016 to MOP949 million.