The Taxation and Regulation of Casino’s and Games of Chance in the Dominican Republic

Glenn Jenkins () and Chun-Yan Kuo ()
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Chun-Yan Kuo: Department of Economics, Queen's University, Canada

No 2004-07, Development Discussion Papers from JDI Executive Programs

Abstract: Gaming represents a relatively easy source of taxation revenue. As a result gambling is taxed more highly than most other service or entertainment activities because the demand for wagering is relatively insensitive to its price and the excess burden of such taxes on recreational gamblers may not be particularly high. On the other hand one of the negative aspects of this sector is money laundering and is common in the activities surrounding the casinos of the Dominican Republic as well. At the present time there is not much that the government is capable of doing at to prevent it from happening. One solution to control this problem is to keep a detailed record of all forms of cash transactions carried out within the casino and scrutinize them by the authorities to detect patterns that are indicative of money laundering activities. At the present time in the Dominican Republic the lotteries and casino sectors are operating largely without a regulatory or taxation system that can be enforced by the government. The existence of such a regulations and enforcements would enhance the overall economic wellbeing and growth of the sector. Our suggestion is to reduce the number of lotteries and their control by the public sector in order to use them as public revenue devises rather than private businesses. In the case of casinos the tax system should be kept simple, but made institutionally robust. This would bring the taxation of casinos and games of chance in line with the levels of taxation imposed on this sector in other countries.

Keywords: Taxation; casino; game of chance; money laundry; Dominican Republic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2004-07
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