This paper examines in a partial-equilibrium framework how a tax burden is divided between the demand and supply sides of a gaming market and why this division affects the relative price of gambling services exported to visitors. We then conduct a general-equilibrium analysis of the overall welfare effect on a tourism-based economy of the gaming tax via its induced changes in the relative price that alter the terms of trade and production incentives. The paper finds that gaming dominant economies differ in market conditions such as demand elasticity and industry structure, which have a clear bearing on tax burden divisiveness. We discover that those conditions can make all the difference between success and failure of a gaming tax and may thus have a good potential for explaining why each gaming jurisdiction has adopted a different tax. The paper also discusses the efficiency criterion for optimal tax choices and the tax policy tradeoff between revenue generation and job creation.