MACAO, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The government of the Macao Special Administrative Region has collected 18.36 billion patacas (2.295 billion U.S. dollars) in direct gaming taxes in the first eight months of the year, seeing a notable year-on-year rise of 47.2 percent.

The statistics issued Wednesday by the Finance Services Bureau (FSB) showed that the gaming taxes accounted for 73.4 percent of the government total revenue in the period.

Macao's 26 casinos pay 35 percent of their gross receipts as direct tax to the government.

The region, with a population of 520,000, has a 150-year history of gaming industry and is the only part of China where casino gaming is legitimate.