The Macau Metro Monitor, May 10th, 2010
LEGAL ADVISER SAY 'NOT TIME TO LOWER GAMING TAXES' Macau Daily Times
As revenues continue to grow, it is not the right time to lower gaming taxes in Macau, Luis Pessanha, legal adviser of the Legislative Assembly told the Macau Daily Times yesterday. Stanley Ho and several gaming operators have been asking the Government to consider rebating a certain amount of gaming tax in order to enhance competitiveness in the market as well as to curb any regional competition. Currently, the gaming tax in Macau stands at 35% of the gross income plus a maximum of 5 percent of contribution to support Macau’s construction, social security and the Macau Foundation.
SENTOSA SEES SURGE OF 30% IN VISITORS WITH RECORD NUMBERS ON SOME DAYS Channel NewsAsia
From February to April this year, Sentosa saw an increase of over 30% in visitors compared with the same period last year. A crowd size of up to 20,000 was previously seen on only a weekend but it's now typical on a weekday. Rajavarman M, assistant manager, Admission Operations, Operations and Retail Division, said: "During a weekday, we see a weekend crowd before RWS has opened and on a weekend we are seeing a slightly more peak crowd that we used to see during certain public holidays. And during our current public holidays, we see an almost super peak crowd, like during Chinese New Year - we almost hit a 100,000 crowd which we have never seen before".
EXPLANATIONS DEMANDED OVER UNDEVELOPED LAND Macau Daily Times
The chairwoman of the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) Provisional Committee for the Analysis of Land and Public Concessions, Kwan Tsui Hang, said that 30 operators who are yet to develop land granted to them by the Macau government will be asked to explain the reasons for their inaction in writing. Kwan stressed that the 30 cases are not only related to gaming operators.
