IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/kyklos/v73y2020i4p500-523.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Taxing Gambling Machines To Enhance Public and Private Revenue

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas A. Garrett
  • David Paton
  • Leighton Vaughan Williams

Abstract

Electronic gambling (‘slot’) machines are a key component of the global gambling industry. We introduce a theoretical framework which shows that under reasonable assumptions, shifting from a per‐machine licence fee to a gross profits tax (GPT) on machine revenue can help to resolve policy tensions between industry profitability, economic growth and government revenue. We test the theory using data on recent changes to gambling taxation in the UK, in particular the move to a gross profits‐based Machine Games Duty (MGD). Our results reveal that the shift from licence fees to a revenue‐neutral MGD led to a significant increase in the number of machines, as predicted by the theory, and in machine revenue. These results provide useful guidance for all parties involved in the gambling taxation debate, especially those jurisdictions that are considering or are open to a change to their gambling tax system.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas A. Garrett & David Paton & Leighton Vaughan Williams, 2020. "Taxing Gambling Machines To Enhance Public and Private Revenue," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(4), pages 500-523, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:73:y:2020:i:4:p:500-523
    DOI: 10.1111/kykl.12247
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12247
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/kykl.12247?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tim Friehe & Mario Mechtel, 2017. "Gambling to leapfrog in status?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1291-1319, December.
    2. William R. Eadington, 1999. "The Economics of Casino Gambling," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 173-192, Summer.
    3. Diamond, Peter A & Mirrlees, James A, 1971. "Optimal Taxation and Public Production II: Tax Rules," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(3), pages 261-278, June.
    4. Will E. Cummings & Douglas M. Walker & Chad D. Cotti, 2017. "The Effect Of Casino Proximity On Lottery Sales: Evidence From Maryland," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(4), pages 684-699, October.
    5. Diamond, Peter A & Mirrlees, James A, 1971. "Optimal Taxation and Public Production: I--Production Efficiency," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 8-27, March.
    6. Michael Keen, 1998. "The balance between specific and ad valorem taxation," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 19(1), pages 1-37, February.
    7. Tim Friehe & Mario Mechtel, 2017. "Erratum to: Gambling to leapfrog in status?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1321-1322, December.
    8. Anderson, John E., 2005. "Casino Taxation in the United States," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 58(2), pages 303-324, June.
    9. D. B. Suits & R. A. Musgrave, 1953. "Ad Valorem and Unit Taxes Compared," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 67(4), pages 598-604.
    10. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    11. Paul Delfabbro & Daniel King, 2017. "Gambling is not a capitalist conspiracy: a critical commentary of literature on the ‘industry state gambling complex’," International Gambling Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 317-331, May.
    12. Peter T. Calcagno & Douglas M. Walker, 2016. "A Review Of Regulatory Theory And The U.S. Casino Industry," Journal of Gambling Business and Economics, University of Buckingham Press, vol. 10(1), pages 14-39.
    13. Peter Calcagno & Douglas Walker & John Jackson, 2010. "Determinants of the probability and timing of commercial casino legalization in the United States," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 69-90, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philander, Kahlil S. & Bernhard, Bo J. & Wimmer, Bradley S. & Singh, Ashok K. & Eadington, William R., 2015. "U.S. casino revenue taxes and short-run labor outcomes," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 35-46.
    2. Mark W. Nichols & Mehmet Serkan Tosun & Jingjing Yang, 2015. "The Fiscal Impact of Legalized Casino Gambling," Public Finance Review, , vol. 43(6), pages 739-761, November.
    3. François Boldron, 2003. "Le choix entre taxe unitaire et taxe ad valorem," Revue Française d'Économie, Programme National Persée, vol. 17(3), pages 109-128.
    4. Etro, Federico, 2016. "Research in economics and public finance," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 1-6.
    5. Alan J. Auerbach & James R. Hines Jr., 2001. "Perfect Taxation with Imperfect Competition," NBER Working Papers 8138, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Giuseppe Colangelo & Umberto Galmarini, 2001. "Ad Valorem Taxation on Intermediate Goods in Oligopoly," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(1), pages 53-73, January.
    7. Alan J. Auerbach, 2006. "The Future of Capital Income Taxation," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 27(4), pages 399-420, December.
    8. Börjesson, Maria & Asplund, Disa & Hamilton, Carl, 2021. "Optimal kilometre tax for electric passenger cars," Working Papers 2021:3, Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute (VTI).
    9. Parry, Ian W.H., 2008. "How should heavy-duty trucks be taxed?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 651-668, March.
    10. Tim Besley & Rohini Pande, 1998. "Read my lips: the political economy of information transmission," IFS Working Papers W98/13, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    11. Alberto Gago & Xavier Labandeira & Xiral López Otero, 2014. "A Panorama on Energy Taxes and Green Tax Reforms," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 208(1), pages 145-190, March.
    12. Jaume Sempere, 2022. "On potential Pareto gains from free trade areas formation," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(6), pages 1502-1518, December.
    13. da Costa, Carlos E. & Pereira, Thiago, 2014. "On the efficiency of equal sacrifice income tax schedules," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 399-418.
    14. Christian Keuschnigg, 2008. "Corporate Taxation and the Welfare State," Working Papers 0813, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    15. Juan Pablo Gama & Rodrigo J. Raad, 2023. "Larde public expenditure shocks in a Ramsey taxation model with default," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 665, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    16. Helmuts Azacis & David R Collie, 2018. "Taxation and the sustainability of collusion: ad valorem versus specific taxes," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 173-188, October.
    17. Richter, Wolfram F., 2009. "Taxing education in Ramsey's tradition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(11-12), pages 1254-1260, December.
    18. Takuya Obara & Yoshitomo Ogawa, 2024. "Optimal taxation in an endogenous fertility model with non-cooperative behavior," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 173-197, March.
    19. Stéphane Gauthier & Guy Laroque, 2019. "Production efficiency and profit taxation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 52(2), pages 215-223, February.
    20. Heider, Florian & Inderst, Roman, 2021. "A Corporate Finance Perspective on Environmental Policy," EconStor Preprints 253669, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:73:y:2020:i:4:p:500-523. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0023-5962 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.