May 22, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — Yet another business columnist has come out in support of overturning the UIGEA, for the simple reason that the there’s a lot of revenue being wasted by failing to tax online gambling.
“ … When [Barney Frank] introduced similar legislation in the last Congress, a study commissioned by the UC Group … and conducted by accounting giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers, estimated that the United States could raise nearly $52 billion in revenue over the next decade simply by lifting the current online gambling ban and taxing the winnings,” wrote Kay Bell earlier this week over at Bankrate.com.
“Now we wait and see and if that potential dollar amount combined with the growing federal deficit is enough to convince Frank's colleagues to support repeal of the no-online-betting law this time.
“Meanwhile, remember that regardless of how you place your bets, your winnings are taxable income.”
This does raise an interesting question: Many Americans in the online gambling industry support the regulation of the industry — but are online gamblers in the U.S. prepared to have a higher level of taxes taken out of their winnings? Are affiliate marketers prepared to have their revenues taxed? That is a very real possibility; California may implement a tax on (non-gambling) affiliate marketing in 2010, so it’s safe to anticipate that, if legalized, online gaming affiliate marketers may be subject to taxation in the near future, as well.