A Tax on Violent Games?

Posted by Robert Janelle Sep 30, 2006

They went after the smokers and the drinkers. They want to go after those who enjoy McDonald's and Oreo cookies. Now there's been discussion of a sin tax for violent video games in Vermont.

Julie Benay, associate principal of Mary S. Babcock Elementary School in Vermont held a discussion with a student group on what to do about youth violence.

Along with students, several politicians were also present, including Vermont Republican Governor Jim Douglas.

While researching to the topic of violence and youth, she ended up fixating on video games.

“I started thinking about when video games were invented, and when did these really violent games come on the market,” she's quoted as saying in an article in the St. Albans Messenger.

“I found that they first came on the market Dec. 10, 1993. Two guys invented Doom as the original ‘first-person shooter’ video game. It gave opponents an opportunity to not only beat each other, but kill each other as well," she continued.

She ended the discussion by proposing legislation that would impose a user fee on video games rated Mature of Adult-Only.

But how well has sin tax worked elsewhere? In Canada, smokers are severely taxed, in some cases, a single pack of smokes is 10 bucks.

The result? Cigarette smuggling and counterfeiting has become big business.

Would a tax on games decrease the sales of violent titles? Or would we simply see shady characters on bicycles selling copies of Grand Theft Auto out of their backpacks?

More likely, though, the people who want to play really bloody games will just suck it up and fork over the extra money, like most smokers.