Republican representative whose district includes Newtown proposes 10 percent excise tax on all M-rated games sold in state.
A Connecticut lawmaker whose district includes Newtown, Connecticut, has introduced a new bill that would charge a 10 percent excise tax on all games sold in the Constitution state rated M-for-Mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
Debralee Hovey's (R-112nd District) Act Establishing A Sales Tax On Certain Video Games (via WFSB) asks that the state's general statutes be amended to allow for the extra, game-specific sales tax.
If it becomes law, a $60 title--after the state's 6 percent sales tax--would sell for around $70.
Money derived from the effort would be given to the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for the purpose of creating informational materials to educate families on the "warning signs" of video game addiction and antisocial behavior.
A similar initiative was introduced in Missouri last month by Diane Franklin (R-123rd District), which would charge a 1 percent excise tax on all T, M, and AO-rated games in the state. Money derived from this tax would be deposited into the state's general revenue fund and be used only for the treatment of mental health conditions associated with "exposure" to violent video games.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
What's the point in giving a game a rating if the PARENTS aren't going to take notice instead of punishing the people who actually follow the law punish the parents buying a 18+ game for their child or just refuse to sell them game or info them that it isn't suitable for anyone under the rating, i'm pretty sure if someone got wind of a parent buying their child alcohol and cigarettes social services will soon be investigating.
oh, yeah, I forgot, anyone hear going to read these "informational materials" to begin with?
"for the purpose of creating informational materials to educate families on the "warning signs" of video game addiction and antisocial behavior." Really? So, let me get this straight, a fund for vg addiction and antisocial behavior? Where are the taxes for hatchets, antifreeze, knives, and parks with high cliffs in them? Do these people think at all? All those items are in thousands of murders and deaths a year, but there are no taxes on them to fund informational materials. Yet, videogames cause zero murders a year. Hmmmm......
Ehem:
"Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech."
Creating a de-incentiviser such as this would definitely fall under abridging that freedom. For f's sake, I'm not even American and I can see that.
The amount of information on video game addiction must be massive if the Connecticut department needs a new 10% tax to make the material available to public. How much money would the good legislator say must be made off the tax before Connecticut citizens can actually be helped?
1 Like greedy fuckers.... how much is enough for these bastards. what are they trying to achieve?
@maximo fight school shootings and mental illnesses by pulling more money out of normal,good populations asses. GREAT THINKING 'MURRICA
Go ahead and tax all 50 gamers that live in Connecticut. But nah, any tax is total BS, but 10% is absurd.
1 Like So this is Republican way of making money: Tripping over corpses. Oh wait! I mean punishing people for giving violent games to young kids. I don't think a lot of people would fall for that idea. I mean, even though it's two months since the Conneticut, Sandy Hook kid shooting, aren't they suppose to work out a deal about gun control, mental health funding and gun education abroad America? If they're too focused on money, than the legacy will contribute the next worse thing: American civil war. That may include the NRA shooting their own. Fancy that!
2 Like I fail to see what this measure is going to accomplish other than to drive gamers to purchase from retailers in neighbouring states.
3 Like This is stupid... All you want is money go fking work a regular job you greedy lawmaker... its bad enough people like you go around blaming something other then the obvious lack of responsibility on the parents and the control of weapons.
soooo with the new tax and all discussions about violent games and real shootings is over?
How can politicians be so STUPID!!!!!!!!! Yeah im pretty sure the Jews were playing call of duty when they killed Jesus. Dont forget that wilkes booth and oswald just co-opted battlefield before they went on assassination missions. Yes people, video games caused all sensless deaths in the history of man! TRUTH
@jvsexy That's why I just posted that any gamers 18 years or older living in that area need to get off their ass and vote.
1 Like If you are 18 or older and don't register to vote you have no right to bitch. Put down your Mountain Dew and Doritos and go vote this $#!+ down.
1 Like this will suck for Americans and it might affect the prices of NTSC imports to African countries, thank God we use mostly PAL imports in Nigeria.
We are ALREADY taxed in pretty much EVERYTHING we do, all day long, even when we sleep. Isn't that enough? They can't even utilize the money get properly, so why should we give them more? Yes. I AM ANTI-SOCIAL! That's what happens when you live in a world full of scum like we have running our government. However, I have this thing called intelligence and games don't force me to, not influence me to, do a single thing.
Money derived from the effort would be given to the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for the purpose of creating informational materials to educate families on the "warning signs" of video game addiction and antisocial behavior.
AntiSocial Behavior , or ppl that dont feel like putting up with stupid BS like this? You decide!
How about introducing "punitive damage" into aforementioned "Responsible Weapon Access Control" law?
Great, Deadly, Extreme Power (guns) should come with great responsibility?
Ain't it?
I called this from a mile away. Another "sin tax", this time for M-rated games. It was the only possible conclusion of this push in the "violent" video game controversy. More taxes. It's the only politically correct thing left to do.
Too bad "sin taxes" do absolutely nothing to fix any fundamental problems of society.
Though, this doesn't worry me as much as the prospect of outlawing unrated games. Now THAT could be truly devastating to the digital market.
One entertainment stream shouldn't have to pay towards the running of mental health institutions without all other entertainment avenues chipping in too. He'll never pull this off.
1 Like You shouldn't punish of age adults for wanting to play a mature game by making it even more expensive.
There it is. All the talking about blaming video games for violence has these objectives: votes from concerned parents and raise in taxes. Politicians always have an agenda.
1 Like This is really pathetic even from where I live(canada) It is very obvious they are wanting to take advantage of a vulnerable state to make some money. They should make a bill that they must ask for ID when buying a M rated game. Or simply make it mandatory for store clerks to tell the customer. If they are buying a game for a anyone under 18 to please read the ratings board/packages for info. That they conveniently have placed on a stand to the side of them.
1 Like Can we also tax guns more? Because of one shooter, many people are now going to suffer. Let's take guns away from people who buy it legally, let's tax people who buy M-rated games. There are probably millions of illegal guns out there and about 500,000 are stolen every year. Instead of worrying about gun trafficking, let's make it harder for people to buy guns.
I'm a bit tired of the witch hunting.
First, they wanted to make ESRB ratings legally binding. Perhaps it sounds good on paper, but it seems pointless in practice because most retailers (at least in my area) require ID for purchases of M-rated games as part of their personal store policy. Now, they want to make an expensive medium of entertainment needlessly more expensive for consumers. And for what? To fund "education" into the effects of gaming on mental health? Sounds like a politician's idea to squeeze money from a group that has already been vilified lately.
I know that, after these massacres and venom being spewed by vocal minorities, I know what's going on. You non-gamers seem to think that all us gamers are basement-dwelling, ticking timebombs who are one kill streak away from shooting up your "precious little chil'ren". But level with me for a second: the latest Call of Duty game sold half a billion dollars worth of copies in 24 hours. That's around...8,333,333 copies (yes, over 8 million). Take into account that not all of us play shooters, but other violent games instead (of which there are many), and you're looking at fairly close to all of us having played a violent game at one time or another. If violent games lead to violent actions...then why are these mass shootings the exception and not the rule? With those numbers and using that mindset as a basis, our society should be nothing but a mountain of corpses by now.
Sounds like they are doing exactly what the British did to use in the 1770's. Because they dont like something/someone they throw a heavy tax on it. It will be a new American Revolution!!!
1 Like @Millard11 Yrd, we should start a revolution! Oh, wait. We can't buy guns anymore and if you can, you have a long time to wait.
1 Like This is not a surprise. Politicians think if they tax a thing, they control a thing. This is not true. People who want a thing will get a thing. You'd think prohibition would have taught the government that.
While it seems a good idea to donate the revenue the tax generates to the study of mental health, there is no iron-clad guarentee 100% of the funds would be used for that purpose. Some of it would. The rest would be syphoned off and spent on other things rendering the tax's ultimate purpose mute.
1 Like Not only will people start buying their games out of state, but the pointless programs that the extra taxes are supposed to fund are just for political points and serve no real purpose whatsoever. Not to mention, but what about movies, apps, books & magazines? These ignorant bastards are gonna single out games just because the crazy bastard that shot up the school just happen to play Call of Duty, along with the 10 million other people. So you're gonna tax adults if they wanna play an M-rated game that they are legally entitled to play & purchase?
These game taxes are complete nonsense. I really hope the ESA gets their lawyers on this asap. These politicians have absolutely no idea what they're talking and should be knocked off their pedestal before they trample the last few remaining pleasures we have.
Let's tax the hell out of video games that are rated mature and only to be sold to those over 17. That's just going to make the crazies who play violent games spend more time on the same game, losing more touch with reality, and more angry because they can't afford to play other games. It wouldn't make more sense to put a tax across every media that contains violence: music, movies, tv shows, and games.
1 Like Now there's your government rep hard at work. If you can't beat it you can at least tax it. That's the solution isn't it? Take more money from me because I'm buying a game that fits my age bracket. So moronic. These guys will come up with any excuse to dig into my pocket.
And there you have it. Polititions(BOTH SIDES) DO NOT CARE about the lives lost, they are only using it as an excuse to push an agenda or to impose more government controll and taxes.
1 Like How about making "Responsible Gun Access Control" law?
Imposing heavy fines and taking away gun liscence of responsible gun owner if he or she is found guilty of making his or her gun available for illegal actions by his or her minor dependents or dependents with mental disorder?
Imposing heavier responsibility on gun owner upon thier guns availability to their responsible dependents' use of the guns in illegal activity.
It works just like driver's liscence, making temp ban or permanent ban according to the severity of the illegal actions done by owners' responsible dependents using owners' guns.
How about requiring background check not only on gun buyers' records but also, his or her dependents ; minor, mentally disabled dependents' records to prevent this kind of events from happening?
How about banning sales of gun in gun show that goes w/o any legally required procedures altogather or fine heavily on both sellers and buyers if found guilty?
Born and raised next to Newtown. I would pay it if the money went to something else. Like environmental work..
United States Vice President Joe Biden believes there is no legal restriction on ability to tax violent media.
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