Dutch online gamblers will be facing a 40% illegal online gaming tax if they are caught gambling online says the Gaming Intelligence Group. The tax includes foreign online gaming sites and this news is coming from an industry that is already facing questions in countries including the United States. Gaming Intelligence Group is a subscription based website and they recently posted on the site the news about the 40% tax. They stated that the core of the debate about the tax was the moral question of whether or not taxing these illegal activities implies that the Dutch government approves of them. The majority of the Dutch Senate was convinced that the law does not differentiate between legal and illegal providers and that both should be treated in a fiscally equal manner.

The tariff actually equals out to 40.85% for all online generated revenue. It is similar to a bill proposed by Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott in the United States who is trying to get the bill passed to tax online gaming operators if internet gambling becomes legal. The bill is worded in such a way that online gambling licensees will be required to pay a 2% fee every thirty days based on all of the funds that are deposited with or on behalf of the license by any person who places a bet during the preceding month.

Texas Congressman Pete Sessions introduced a bill that has received fire from the Congressmen from Nevada who feel that online gaming sites should be taxed on the state level like the land based casinos are. One of the Nevada Congressmen, Shelley Berkley, has authored a bill that will study the best way to regulate internet gambling in the United States and how the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 has affected the country’s economy.

The Dutch Senate has only 75 seats, 21 of which are occupied by the Christian Democratic Appeal, 13 by the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, 14 by the Labor Party with the rest being held by the Socialist Party, Green Left, Christian Union, Democrats 66, Political Reform Party, Party for the Animals, and the Independent Senate Group. The Senate is located and meets in The Hague.

Gaming Intelligence Group has stated that the Dutch lawmaking body is still deliberating over how to get their citizens to declare income from gambling winnings and how they should deal with gaming operators. These questions are still up in the air and it is making other legislatures look at how they will handle revenues that are not reported by their own citizens.