By nature, businesses are taxable, so it makes sense that casinos should be taxed. But in some countries, they also tax individual gambling winnings. That got me thinking, what’s the real purpose behind that? Most of us gamblers are overall losers anyway, so what impact does taxing the winnings really have?
Would it actually boost government revenue, or could it backfire and discourage people from gambling altogether, knowing it’s already hard to win and when they finally do, they still have to pay taxes?
None of what you said. Unfortunately modern states are a monster that spends more and more, so they have to get the money from somewhere. On the one hand they get it from inflation, but voters don't like to see prices going up too much. On the other hand, they take it out of taxes, which voters don't like very much either. And the third is debt, a resource to which they resort a lot because it is the least noticeable. Our children and grandchildren will pay for it. The fact is that with a combination of these three factors they do not have enough, and they continue to spend more than they receive. More and more and more. So they keep producing inflation, keep getting into debt and keep raising taxes. If they discover a niche where they did not charge taxes before and now they can, they impose them.