Tax on Gambling Winnings by Country

"Do I pay tax on gambling winnings" is asked millions of times a year and the answer depends entirely on where the player lives. In Britain, Ireland, Australia, Canada and most of Europe, the answer is no: the operator is taxed and the player is not. In the United States, every dollar won is taxable income, and the rules on deducting losses got harder in 2026. A group of countries tax net winnings at a flat rate, and several withhold at source. This guide sets out the position by country as at 2026, explains the logic behind each model, and covers the questions that cut across them: professional gamblers, non-residents, crypto, and record-keeping. It is not tax advice; a player with a large win or a complicated position should take advice in their own jurisdiction.

The three models

Tax the operator, not the player. The dominant model in Europe and the Commonwealth. The state takes its share through duties on the operator's stakes or gross gaming revenue, and treats a player's winnings as outside the tax base, on the logic that gambling is a consumption activity in which most participants lose and taxing the winners while ignoring the losers would be arbitrary. The Gambling Tax Rates by Country guide covers the operator side.

Tax winnings as income. The American model. Winnings are ordinary income, reported and taxed at the player's marginal rate, with losses deductible against them under conditions.

Tax net winnings at a flat rate, often withheld. A growing model in Latin America, Asia and Africa, where a percentage is withheld from winnings or paid on annual net winnings by the player.

The three models produce different behaviour: where the player is taxed, offshore and unlicensed play is more attractive, which is one reason most European regulators prefer the first model.

Countries where players pay no tax

United Kingdom. No tax on gambling winnings of any kind, including professional gambling, since betting duty on stakes was abolished in 2001 and replaced by duties on operators. A professional poker player's winnings are not trading income under long-standing case law. Operators pay general betting duty, remote gaming duty and other duties, with rates raised in the 2025 Budget.

Ireland. No tax on winnings. Operators pay betting duty on stakes.

Australia. No tax on recreational gambling winnings; the courts have consistently declined to treat gamblers as carrying on a business except in exceptional cases. Operators pay state and territory taxes including point-of-consumption taxes.

New Zealand. No tax on winnings unless gambling is carried on as a business, which is rare.

Canada. Recreational winnings are windfalls and not taxable. A professional gambler running a business is taxable in principle; the Canada Revenue Agency and the courts have applied the test narrowly, and poker is the area of most dispute. Lottery winnings are tax-free.

Germany. Winnings from games of chance are not taxable income for players. Professional poker players have been taxed as carrying on a trade in a number of cases. Operators pay a tax on stakes for online slots and poker and a betting tax on sports stakes.

France. Winnings from licensed gambling are not taxable for recreational players; the tax authorities have pursued professional poker players as carrying on a non-commercial activity. Operators pay levies on stakes and GGR.

Belgium. No tax on winnings for players. Operators are taxed regionally.

Austria. No income tax on gambling winnings for players.

Sweden. Winnings from operators licensed in Sweden or elsewhere in the EEA are tax-free. Winnings from operators outside the EEA are taxable at 30 per cent.

Denmark. Winnings from operators licensed in Denmark are tax-free. Winnings from unlicensed operators are taxable as personal income.

Finland. Winnings from EEA-licensed gambling are tax-free; from outside the EEA, taxable.

Norway. Winnings from the state monopoly and from EEA-licensed games are tax-free; winnings from other sources above a modest annual threshold are taxable.

Italy. Winnings from licensed operators are taxed at source, with the operator accounting for the tax, so the player receives net winnings and has nothing further to declare. Winnings from unlicensed operators are taxable in the player's hands as other income.

Netherlands. Gambling tax (kansspelbelasting) is charged on gross gaming revenue for operators licensed in the Netherlands, at a rate raised to 34.2 per cent in 2025 and scheduled to rise again in 2026, so players of licensed operators pay nothing themselves. Players who win with operators outside the licensed system must declare and pay the tax on their net winnings.

Portugal. Winnings from licensed online gambling are tax-free for players; lottery prizes above a threshold carry stamp duty.

Malta. No tax on winnings for players.

South Africa. Recreational winnings, including the national lottery, are not taxable. A professional gambler can be taxed on business income.

Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau. No tax on gambling winnings for individuals.

The United States

The United States taxes all gambling winnings as ordinary income at federal level, and most states tax them too. The rules in outline:

Reporting. Every dollar of winnings is reportable, whether or not a form is issued. Operators issue Form W-2G when winnings reach thresholds set by game: 1,200 dollars from slots or bingo, 1,500 dollars from keno (net of the wager), 5,000 dollars from a poker tournament (net of the buy-in), and 600 dollars where the payout is at least 300 times the wager for other bets. Sports betting and online casino operators report accordingly, and the IRS receives a copy.

Withholding. Federal withholding of 24 per cent applies to certain winnings above 5,000 dollars (and to any winnings where the winner does not provide a taxpayer identification number, at a higher backup rate). Withholding is a prepayment, not the final tax.

Losses. Losses are deductible only by taxpayers who itemise deductions, only up to the amount of winnings, and only with records. Most taxpayers take the standard deduction and cannot deduct losses at all, so a recreational player who wins 10,000 dollars and loses 12,000 dollars in a year owes tax on 10,000 dollars of income.

The 2026 change. Legislation enacted in July 2025 limited the deduction for gambling losses to 90 per cent of losses from the 2026 tax year, so that a player with 100,000 dollars of winnings and 100,000 dollars of losses has 10,000 dollars of taxable income despite breaking even. The change was aimed at professional players and high-volume bettors and produced immediate bipartisan proposals to repeal it, which had not passed as at September 2026. Tax advisers describe the effect as "phantom income" and the industry has lobbied against it.

Professional gamblers report on Schedule C as a business, deduct expenses, and are subject to the same 90 per cent limit on losses.

State taxes. Most states tax winnings as income; several do not allow loss deductions at all; a few states have no income tax. Some states withhold on large wins.

Non-residents. Winnings by non-resident aliens are subject to 30 per cent withholding on gambling winnings other than certain table games, unless a treaty exempts them. The treaty with the United Kingdom exempts UK residents; a British visitor who wins a jackpot in Las Vegas can reclaim the withholding or avoid it with the right form. Canadians can reclaim withholding against losses under the Canada treaty.

Crypto. Winnings received in cryptocurrency are income at their dollar value when received, and any later change in value is a capital gain or loss.

Countries that tax players' winnings

Spain. Gambling winnings are taxable income in the general base, with losses deductible against winnings in the same year (not below zero), declared on the annual return. Winnings from unlicensed operators are taxable without the loss offset. Lottery prizes above a threshold carry a separate 20 per cent tax.

Brazil. The 2023 law that regulated fixed-odds betting imposed a 15 per cent income tax on net winnings above an exempt threshold, with the mechanics of collection set by the federal tax authority and adjusted since; the rules have been contested and revised, and a bettor should check the current position with Receita Federal. Lottery prizes are taxed at 30 per cent at source.

India. Winnings from lotteries, betting, and games of any kind are taxed at a flat 30 per cent (plus surcharge and cess) with no deductions and no offset for losses, withheld at source above a threshold. Online real-money games were taxed under a specific regime from 2023 (30 per cent on net winnings, with tax deducted by the operator, alongside 28 per cent goods and services tax on deposits), which is largely academic since the federal ban on online money games took effect in May 2026. The India Online Gaming Law Explained guide covers the ban.

Japan. Gambling winnings from lawful sources are taxable as temporary income: winnings less the cost of the winning bets, less an annual deduction of 500,000 yen, with half the remainder added to taxable income. Losing bets are not deductible, which produced the well-known cases in which horse-racing bettors owed tax on gross winnings far above their net profit; the courts have allowed a business treatment in narrow cases.

Mexico. Prizes from gambling are subject to federal withholding at 1 per cent, and states levy additional taxes on prizes at rates of up to 6 per cent; the operator withholds.

Philippines. Lottery prizes above 10,000 pesos are subject to a 20 per cent final tax. Casino winnings are generally not taxed in the player's hands.

Kenya. A withholding tax on winnings, at 20 per cent for most of the period since 2019, deducted by the operator; the rate and the excise duty on stakes have been changed repeatedly in successive finance acts.

Nigeria. A withholding tax on winnings was introduced under the 2023 finance legislation; operators deduct it.

Ghana. A 10 per cent withholding on betting winnings was introduced in 2023 and repealed in the 2025 budget.

Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and several other European states tax winnings above thresholds, at flat rates or on progressive scales, in some cases withheld by the operator; the rules differ by product and change often.

Professional gamblers

Every tax system has to decide whether a person who gambles for a living is running a business. The tax-free jurisdictions mostly hold that even professionals are not taxable (Britain's position, established in a 1925 case, is the clearest), because taxing them would require allowing every loser's losses. Germany, France and Canada have taxed professional poker players in specific cases where the activity had the organisation and regularity of a trade. The United States taxes everyone and lets professionals deduct expenses. The line is drawn case by case, and a player earning a living from gambling in a tax-free jurisdiction should not assume the position is settled if the authorities can show a business.

What operators withhold and report

Operators in the taxing jurisdictions are the collection mechanism. In the United States they issue W-2G forms and withhold; in Italy they account for the tax on winnings; in India, Kenya, Nigeria and Mexico they deduct at source; in the Netherlands and Denmark they pay the gambling tax on their own GGR so the player owes nothing. Operators' reporting to tax authorities has expanded with the general trend toward automatic exchange of financial information, and a player's winnings are increasingly visible to the authorities whether reported or not. The operator's own compliance obligations in this area are covered in the iGaming Compliance Checklist.

Record-keeping

In any jurisdiction where winnings are taxable, the burden of proving losses falls on the player, and the authorities expect contemporaneous records: dates, venues or sites, games, amounts won and lost, and supporting documents (account statements, tickets, W-2G forms). Online operators' account histories serve this purpose, and a player who uses several operators should download them annually. In the United States, session-based accounting (netting wins and losses within a session) has been accepted for slots in some circumstances and is the subject of continuing guidance.

Frequently asked questions

Are gambling winnings taxed in the UK? No. Neither recreational nor professional winnings are taxed. The operator pays duties instead.

Are gambling winnings taxed in the US? Yes, all of them, as ordinary income, with reporting forms at set thresholds and 24 per cent withholding on large wins. Losses are deductible only when itemising, and from 2026 only 90 per cent of losses can be deducted.

Do I pay tax on winnings from an offshore casino? In the tax-free jurisdictions, generally no, though Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands tax winnings from operators outside their licensed system or the EEA. In the taxing jurisdictions, yes, and the operator will not have withheld.

Are lottery winnings taxed? Not in Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia or most of Europe. Yes in the United States (as income), Spain (above a threshold), Brazil, India and the Philippines, among others.

Are crypto gambling winnings taxed? As gambling winnings under the local rule, valued at the time of receipt, and then as a capital gain or loss on any change in value before disposal.

What if I win abroad? The country where you win may withhold (the United States does, at 30 per cent for non-residents, with treaty exceptions), and your home country applies its own rule. Tax-free home jurisdictions do not tax foreign winnings either.

Related on iGaming Times

Gambling Tax Rates by Country is the operator-side companion. US Sports Betting State by State covers the American market whose players face the strictest rules. Offshore Gambling Explained covers the play that falls outside licensed systems and their tax treatment, and Law and Compliance is the course for the regulatory framework.

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Regulation, tax and market figures move quickly, sometimes mid-year. Where this guide gives a number, treat it as a starting point and confirm the current position with the named primary source before you rely on it.