Well, of course not really. But when states are suffering massive budget shortfalls the first thing they start taxing is products that don't have a well-organized consumer group/union/lobbyists behind them. They also like to tax products that the general public looks down upon (see Virginia's recent proposal to double the tobacco tax)
Is virtual game currency next? Maybe if you live in New York according to Game Politics:
The New York Daily News has coverage of Paterson's budget plan:
Gov. Paterson's proposed $121 billion budget hits New Yorkers in their iPods - and nickels-and-dimes them in lots of other places, too.
Trying to close a $15.4 billion budget gap, Paterson called for 88 new fees and a host of other taxes, including an "iPod tax" that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other "digitally delivered entertainment services."
Indeed, a review of the budget document reveals the details of Paterson's plan to tax all forms of digitally-delivered content:
Close Digital Property Taxation Loophole. Imposes state and local sales tax on purchases of prewritten software, digital audio, audio-visual and text files, digital photographs, games, and other electronically delivered entertainment services to achieve tax parity. For example, with the passage of this bill, a book, song, album, or movie would be subject to sales tax no matter if it was bought at a brick and mortar store or downloaded online.
It seems like not only would that include the latest instant expansion downloads, but virtual currency as well. Will it be enforced? Probably not for most virtual currency companies (although legally any that are based in the U.S such as MOGS will probably consider adding a tax if you select that you live in New York). Developer sponsored virtual currency such as SOE's Station Cash (which just announced yesterday that it was hiring more people due to overwhelming demand) most defintely will start collecting tax from New Yorkers. However, will your average chinese gold company start collecting taxes for New York? Don't count on it (they don't even pay taxes in China apparently).
The trend towards virtual currency public legitimacy continues....