Macau Casinos Took MOP$251.8bn in 2025 as Commissions and Rebates Grew Faster

The Statistics and Census Service's annual survey shows receipts up 8.8% and gross surplus up 9.3%, but the spend on player rebates and commissions rose 11.6%, the second year running it has outpaced the top line.

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• Macau's gaming sector recorded total receipts of MOP$251.8 billion (about $31.3 billion) in 2025, up 8.8% year on year, according to the Statistics and Census Service's Gaming Sector Survey
• Games of chance accounted for 98.3% of receipts, or MOP$247.4 billion, with the remainder from hotel, food and beverage, retail and other services
• Purchases of goods, commissions and customer rebates rose 11.6% to MOP$25.9 billion, outpacing receipts for the second consecutive year after a 28.0% jump in 2024
• Total expenditure climbed 7.5% to MOP$101.4 billion and gross surplus rose 9.3% to MOP$156.5 billion, while full-time employment was essentially flat at 53,075
• The survey covers the year before the 2026 rebound in visitation that has analysts forecasting double-digit growth for September

The Full-Year Accounts Behind Macau's 2025 Recovery

Macau's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) has published its Gaming Sector Survey for 2025, the annual accounting of the six concessionaires' income, costs and employment that sits behind the monthly gross gaming revenue figures.

Total receipts across the sector reached MOP$251.8 billion, up 8.8% on 2024. Receipts from games of chance, the casino floor itself, contributed MOP$247.4 billion, or 98.3% of the total, according to the survey as reported by Inside Asian Gaming. The balance came from the hotel, food and beverage, retail and other ancillary businesses that the concessionaires operate under their gaming licences.

On the cost side, total expenditure rose 7.5% to MOP$101.4 billion. Operating expenses grew 7.7% to MOP$43.7 billion, and compensation of employees rose 6.0% to MOP$22.8 billion. The fastest-growing line was purchases of goods, commissions and customer rebates, which increased 11.6% to MOP$25.9 billion.

Gross surplus, the difference between receipts and expenditure before tax and depreciation, rose 9.3% to MOP$156.5 billion. The number of full-time employees at the end of the year was 53,075, compared with 52,971 a year earlier.

A Slower Year Than 2024, With the Same Shape

The 2025 figures continue a pattern established in the previous survey rather than break from it. In 2024, receipts had grown 23.1% to MOP$231.45 billion as the post-pandemic recovery ran through its second full year, and commissions and rebates had risen 28.0% to MOP$23.20 billion. Growth in both lines has now slowed sharply, but the relationship between them has held: the money spent to attract and retain players is growing faster than the money those players leave behind.

The survey is a lagging document. Macau's monthly gross gaming revenue for 2026 has been running ahead of 2025 through the summer, and Citigroup's channel checks point to September growth of around 12% year on year. The 2025 accounts nonetheless establish the cost base on which that growth is being generated.

Rebates Are the Post-Junket Market's Acquisition Cost, and They Are Compounding

The line to watch in this survey is the one growing fastest. Before 2022, Macau's VIP business ran through junket operators who sourced high-value players, extended credit and were paid commissions on rolling chip turnover. The junket collapse moved that business in-house, and the concessionaires now compete directly for premium mass and direct VIP players through comps, rebates on play and commissions to the agents who remain. The survey captures the price of that competition: an 11.6% rise in commissions and rebates against an 8.8% rise in receipts, on top of 2024's 28.0% against 23.1%. Two years is a trend. The concessionaires have taken back the margin the junkets used to keep, but they are spending a rising share of it to do the junkets' old job, and the government's periodic reminders that it watches the reinvestment rate are not an idle observation.

A Flat Workforce and a 9.3% Rise in Surplus Is the Operating Leverage Story

The other notable relationship in the accounts is between headcount and surplus. Employment moved by 104 people across the whole sector, compensation rose 6.0%, and gross surplus rose 9.3%. Macau's operators are generating more surplus from essentially the same workforce, which is the operating leverage that the post-concession-renewal investment programmes were designed to produce, and it is showing up before the non-gaming projects the concessionaires committed to in 2022 have fully matured. Against that, non-gaming remains 1.7% of receipts, a figure that has barely moved and that the government has made clear it wants to see change. The 2025 survey shows a sector that has recovered its scale, is paying more for its players, and is still almost entirely a casino business.

The top line grew and the surplus grew faster. The cost of keeping players at the tables grew faster still, and that is the number the next survey will be judged on.