Risks of using taxation as a public health measure to reduce gambling-related harms

Taxation can be used to increase the prices of and reduce the consumption and harms arising from public health concerns related to tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks.1 Gambling is another public health concern,2, 3, 4 and some authors have therefore made the analogous recommendation that gambling-related harms might also be reduced via increases in taxation.2, 5 However, this recommendation neglects the fact that it is largely excessive gambling losses, rather than the act of gambling itself, that produces gambling-related harm.6 Gambling taxes can have negative effects on gambling-related harm via this channel of increasing the losses of gamblers.