Singapore's Betting Tax Take Rose 11.9% to S$3.6bn, the Fastest of Any Tax Line

Gambling duties and casino tax brought the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore S$3.6 billion in the year to March, growing faster than corporate income tax or stamp duty. The report does not separate the casino take from the duties, which limits what can be read into it about Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa.

• IRAS collected S$3.6 billion (about $2.84 billion) in betting taxes in the financial year to 31 March 2026, up from S$3.2 billion, according to its annual report published on 4 September
• The 11.9% rise was the fastest of the seven tax categories the report compares year on year, ahead of corporate income tax at 11.3% and stamp duty at 10.7%
• Total collections rose 9.4% to S$97.3 billion; betting taxes were 3.7% of that
• The category combines gambling duties with casino tax and the report gives no split, so the figure is not a proxy for casino gross gaming revenue
• Singapore has two casinos, Marina Bay Sands, owned by Las Vegas Sands, and Resorts World Sentosa, owned by Genting Singapore

Betting Outgrew Every Other Category in a Strong Year for the Treasury

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore's annual report for FY2025/26 records S$3.6 billion of betting taxes, a category it defines as gambling duties and casino tax, against S$3.2 billion in the prior year. The 11.9% increase was the largest of the seven year-on-year comparisons the report shows, with corporate income tax next at 11.3% and stamp duty at 10.7%.

The authority collected S$97.3 billion in total, 9.4% more than the year before. Corporate income tax remained the largest contributor at 35.4% of collections, followed by goods and services tax at 22.3% and individual income tax at 21.5%. Betting taxes accounted for 3.7%.

IRAS attributed the year's growth in general terms. "Increased economic activity and consumer spending have contributed to higher tax collection across all tax types," it said. The report identifies no separate driver for the betting line and provides no measure of gambling revenue, as Asia Gaming Brief noted in its reading of the figures, so the increase should not be read as an equivalent rise in casino gross gaming revenue.

Two Casinos, a Lottery Operator and a Tote Sit Behind One Line

The betting-tax category covers more than the two integrated resorts. Gambling duties fall on Singapore Pools' lottery and sports betting products and on the Tote's horse-race betting, while casino tax is levied on the gross gaming revenue of Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa at differential rates for premium and mass play. Without a split, a strong year for the lottery and a strong year for the casinos are indistinguishable in the headline figure.

What is known from the operators' own reporting is that both resorts are in the middle of large expansions and that Las Vegas Sands has been consolidating its position in Asia, taking its stake in Sands China above 75% last week. The tax figure is consistent with a good year for them without proving one.

The Number That Matters Is the Rate of Growth, Not the Share

At 3.7% of the total, betting is a small line for a treasury that takes more than a third of its revenue from corporate income tax. Its significance is that it grew faster than anything else in a year when the whole system grew by 9.4%. That is the argument Singapore's government makes when it defends the integrated resort model to its own public: the resorts pay, and the amount they pay rises. It is also the argument that will be made by anyone lobbying for a third licence, though there is no sign of one.

Singapore Publishes What Macau Does Not, and Still Leaves the Question Open

Macau publishes monthly gross gaming revenue to the pataca, and the share of it eaten by commissions; Singapore publishes a combined tax line once a year. For investors trying to read the health of the two resorts from public data, that leaves the operators' quarterly filings as the only reliable source. The IRAS report is confirmation of direction, not a measurement.

The Court Ruling on the Same Weekend Is the Other Half of the Singapore Story

The tax report landed in the same days as a High Court judgment refusing to enforce a Macau casino debt on public-policy grounds. A jurisdiction that collects S$3.6 billion a year from gambling while declining to help a licensed foreign casino collect from a customer is not being inconsistent so much as precise about whose gambling it is prepared to underwrite. Both facts describe the same policy.

Singapore's betting taxes grew faster than its economy and faster than any other tax it collects. What the two casinos contributed to that is the figure the report does not give, and the one their next results will.