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?
I think it's a mix of both, more focused on the latter. Increasing taxes is a good way of deterring people from gambling or buying export items, as we often see governments imposing high taxes on certain things. But there is no doubt the government also benefits greatly from these taxes and in a way it doesn't really hit the poor because these taxes are usually imposed on luxuries like gambling, cars, etc.
Then I also feel that if they really wanted to discourage people from gambling why not just ban it once and for all. Why earn money on something that can trouble the youth. So in some sense, governments do want these gambling houses to operate because a massive part of their revenue comes from it.