Casino revenues in Macao for the whole of 2008 rose by 31 percent year-on-year to record high of 108.7 billion patacas (13.7 billion U.S. dollars), according to the figures released on Friday by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) of the Special Administrative Region (SAR).

The DICJ figures showed that the SAR, the only place in China where gaming is legal, registered casino revenues of 24.7 billion patacas (3.12 billion dollars) in the fourth quarter last year, dropping by seven percent compare with the previous quarter, and decreasing by 0.25 percent year-on-year.

Gaming revenues of the SAR stood at 83.8 billion patacas (10.6 billion dollars) in 2007, growing by 45.7 percent over the previous year.

By far, the SAR, with a population of only 550,000, has 31 casinos, 19 of which are run by the local gaming company SJM, but the largest one, Venetian Macao casino resort, is operated by the Las Vegas Sands.

According to the DICJ, there were 4,017 gaming tables and 11,856 slot machines in Macao's casinos in the fourth quarter of last year, down 300 and 1,000 respectively over the previous quarter.

Source:Xinhua