Macau gaming commissions, customer rebates and goods costs rise 12pct in 2025, 26pct of total expenses

Macau’s gaming sector saw its spending under the combined category of “purchase of goods, commissions and customer rebate” rise 11.6 percent year-on-year in 2025, to MOP25.88 billion (US$3.20 billion), according to the city’s Statistics and Census Service. Such spending represented approximately 25.5 percent of the gaming sector’s total expenditure for 2025, according to GGRAsia’s calculations based on official data. Total expenditure – excluding taxes – increased by 7.5 percent year-on-year, to MOP101.44 billion, showed the latest annual “Gaming Sector Survey” published on Friday. The increase in spending on purchases, commissions, and customer rebates outpaced the overall growth in sector costs in 2025. The category had amounted to approximately MOP23.20 billion in 2024, when it accounted for about 24.6 percent of total expenditure. It means the category’s share of overall expenditure increased by about 0.9 percentage points year-on-year. In 2024, spending on purchases, commissions and customer rebates had already risen by circa 28 percent year-on-year, according to the previous edition of the annual survey. The Statistics and Census Service does not provide in the survey a separate breakdown for the amount specifically paid as gaming commissions versus purchases of goods and customer rebates. Macau’s casino operators have in recent quarters increased their use of commissions and incentives to attract premium-mass players, amid heightened competition for such customers. CBRE Equity Research said in a recent note that promotional spending by Macau casino operators would in likelihood remain elevated in the second half of 2026 amid intense competition for higher-spending customers. That was after total gaming commissions as a percentage of aggregate Macau gross gaming revenue “hit a new peak of 20.9 percent” in the second quarter, the institution noted. In 2025, operating expenses remained the largest expenditure category for the gaming sector, rising by 7.7 percent year-on-year to MOP43.72 billion. Compensation of employees increased by 6.0 percent to MOP22.77 billion, while non-operating expenses were broadly unchanged at MOP9.1 billion. The official data showed that complimentary goods and services provided to customers accounted for 62.6 percent of operating expenses. Hotel accommodation represented 32.4 percent of operating expenses, while food and beverages accounted for 20.3 percent. The gaming sector recorded total receipts of MOP251.75 billion in 2025, an increase of 8.8 percent from the previous year. Receipts from games of chance amounted to MOP247.40 billion, or 98.3 percent of the total. Gross surplus before taxes increased by 9.3 percent year-on-year to MOP156.47 billion, while the gross surplus ratio edged up by 0.2 percentage points to 62.9 percent. The 2025 gaming sector survey used data collected from eight entities with gaming activities in the city: six casino concessionaires, plus firms involved in either lottery services or sports betting. That was down from nine in the previous year.