Purpose The objective of this paper is to explore the answer of the question that what kinds of the social values can be created through CSR disclosure in gaming tourism industry. In addition, the paper also investigates how industry players use CSR disclosure as an effective communication channel to maximize the transparency, build trust with their stakeholders and in turn bring positive social value to the society. Design/methodology/approach This research applied content analysis method and collected data from annual reports, sustainability/social reports and corporate website of all gaming operators in Macao from 2011 to 2017. The results are also tied to the related contents in the government’s report on gaming tourism industry as well as the CSR reporting guidelines promulgated by the industry’s relevant regulatory bodies. Further analysis is conducted based on the public statistical data for exploring and quantifying the social value co-created by the industry players along with their variety stakeholder groups. Findings Findings of the research show that sustainability of the enterprises in gaming tourism industry is built with the participation of variety stakeholder groups, like consumers/customers, government, community, suppliers, employees. CSR disclosure becomes an important media that fuels the pride, trust, and consistency of the members of the value chain. It also suggests working together with the stakeholders can live up to the values that companies promised and ultimately supports sustainability. Originality/value The extant co-creation literature mainly focuses on the interaction between firm and their consumers. This paper extends the topic to other stakeholder groups, such as community, employee, government, etc. In addition, this is one of the first studies on value co-creation via CSR disclosure based on companies in gaming tourism industry, especially in a region under “one country, two systems”. Last but not least, the paper is pioneering in exploring how companies use CSR reporting to whiten their image and restore social value from gaming operation, the typical vice sector integrated with tourism business.