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?
Taxes are imposed on something to increase the revenue of the country. When you pay taxes to the government on the money you earn from doing business or working, do you feel discouraged from working or doing business? In the case of taxing gambling, tax is definitely taken from the profit, so I don't think anyone who is addicted to gambling will be discouraged from gambling because of this tax. They will think that they can easily win a lot of money from gambling, so paying taxes to the government on that is not a problem for them. Although it is a wrong decision for them, they will not realize it at that time. And will continue to gamble.