MACAO, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Macao's income from direct gaming tax is expected to reach 16 billion patacas (two billion US dollars) this year, a new high in the history, local media reported Monday.

    The Macao Post Daily quoted Tam Pak Yuen, Macao's Secretary for Economic and Finance, as saying that the year-on-year growth of the casino tax income will thus amount to around 8.8 percent.

    The government collected 14.74 billion patacas (1.84 billion US dollars) in the direct gaming taxes in 2004, according to the newspaper.

    It reported that the gaming tax totaled 13.73 billion patacas (1.71 billion US dollars) in the first 10 months of the year, a year-on-year rise of 17.1 percent.

    Macao's 17 casinos pay 35 percent of their gross revenues as direct tax to the government, according to official figures.

    Macao, with a population of over 480,000, is the only region in China where casino gaming is legal. Enditem