Selective taxes on goods and services are widespread among developed and less developed countries. In Europe, small excise taxes – small with respect to their yields – have been abandoned during the twentieth century or absorbed into general taxes, but the large taxes on, e.g., tobacco or petroleum products remained. The objective of the full paper is to provide a general survey of the origins, the nature, the techniques, and the likely economic impact of the amusement tax, which so far has received little attention in the professional literature. The paper will concentrate on the amusement tax levied in OECD countries, and includes two case studies on Turkey and Switzerland.