Gambling Taxes Around the World
Around there world there are different rules for how winnings are taxed from online gambling and online betting services and can create quite a difference in the amount of winnings received – there’s plenty of information available online for how countries like the US in particular handle this at casinogenie.org for example, but in order to simplify the rules of gambling taxes around the world this list will take a look at some of the biggest gambling countries and how winnings are managed, and in some instances how losses are managed too.
US hold the biggest taxes – There are plenty of stories out there for those lucky few that have managed to win the Powerball at $1 billion but only walk away with half of that, nothing to turn the nose at but still a substantial loss. The US has a near 50% tax rate on winnings earned from games of chance, but this does come with another side to the story too as gamblers are also able to claim back losses as deductible on taxes – there’s a line between winnings and losses here though and creates a unique environment for those looking to gamble online within the US.
UK is quite the opposite – Unlike the US, in the UK all winnings earned through games of chance are cleared to be kept in their entirety with no taxes at all, but this does come with the other side too that losses also can’t be claimed back either so whilst all winnings are kept, all losses are also with the player in their entirety too.
(Image from jackmobilecasinos.com)
Canada & Australia – Both of these markets differ from others too – whilst neither market requires players to pay taxes on any winnings, there are some caveats to this. For Canada any interest must be declared for tax purposes, and there’s suspected change for professional players too as both will look to tax any earnings from a professional standpoint for those who have turned gambling into a profession – as games of chance are seen as recreation, tax is only applicable when turned into a career instead. Both also follow the US with deductible taxes too as losses can be claimed back against the winnings, in some cases giving the best of the other two biggest markets to make a player friendly gambling environment.
There will be other unique differences between smaller markets too, but the themes are quite common across the board for different gambling markets with the US being the biggest exception and being much heavier on tax than others.
