LThe Council for Compulsory Deductions (CPO) tackles gambling. A report from this independent body attached to the Court of Auditors recommends the establishment of new taxation, including concerning players' winnings.
According to its latest note of December 23, the taxation of these games (lotteries, scratch games, horse racing and sports betting, online poker, casino, etc.) is considered “complex”. The CPO believes that the multitude of specific taxes, depending on the types of games and operators, makes the system “illegible” and with disparities.
The organization therefore recommends simplifying the sector's tax framework, by harmonizing it. It therefore proposes applying the same single rate to all games, weighted by their addictive nature (particularly for young people) and by the competitive situation of the players. Concretely, online poker, sports betting and scratch games will be taxed much more than horse racing betting.
Taxation of players' winnings discussed
The organization also encourages the executive to tax the advertising and “sponsorship” expenses of gambling operators. According to the newspaper The Echoeshe recommends a rate of at least 25% to have a truly “deterrent” effect.
The CPO also opens the way to the taxation of the winnings of players, until now exempt from income tax, with the exception of poker and bridge professionals, whose practice is “usual”, and therefore taxable. According to the document, “the exemption of winnings constitutes a favorable signal to gambling, which gambling operators do not fail to highlight in advertisements”.
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The CPO considers that this approach could be re-examined, in particular for professional players or windfall winnings, in order to better align the tax treatment with economic realities and practices in other countries. By taxing only gains above 500 euros, “the order of magnitude of the tax base can be estimated, conservatively, at at least 1 billion euros per year”.
This work comes in the wake of the debate on the Social Security finance bill – suspended after the fall of Michel Barnier – where amendments aimed at raising taxes on lotteries, casinos and other gambling had been tabled . These threats of taxation led hundreds of professionals in the horse industry to demonstrate in the streets of Paris
