Dutch Senate Approves Tax On Online Gambling

[Emma]

It had been rumoured that some countries could have been taking legal action on online gambling over the next couple of months. Apparently, Holland was the first country to take that step and has now imposed a tax on revenue from online gambling.

The Gaming Intelligence Group is a subscription-based site that reports news and they just announced that the Dutch senate recently approved a tax on “illegal online gambling” as well as people who gamble on “online foreign sites”. The tax is of approximately 40% on all revenue generated online.

This is one step that the Senate has taken in order to incentivise players to declare income acquired from gambling. In many countries, income from gambling has become some sort of black market that hurts the economy, which is why it is not only Holland that is looking for a solution to this problem. The moral question the Senate faced at the debate was whether if taxing illegal activities makes them somehow legal but for the moment a tax seemed like the most accurate way to decrease undeclared income in the economy. Even though the moral argument was not solved, the tax was approved by the 75 members of the Dutch Senate and will be imposed soon.

[Assistanc3]

this is great news even if it fails in Holland, which is a growing poker country
at least there is 1 building block down for making poker viable to the rest of the countries contemplating on direction.

[Dunbar]

Holland has a really strange gambling legislation, so nobody knows how this will work out.