 As of today, all national casinos and cardrooms are now required by law to report tournament winners taking home prizes of more than $5,000. Now, rather than leaving it up to the individual player to report his earnings, the burden will be placed on the backs of the tournament directors themselves, thus more clearly defining who made what where. Beginning today, the IRS will now be provided information as to exactly how much the player won (again, upwards of $5k) and that player will be expected to pay the 25% tax. If a player refuses to give his information, the casino will be required to take 28% out of the prize money before it is awarded.
Tournament winnings will now also be required to be reported via a W-2g tax form. Casinos and/or cardrooms who do not comply with this act will be required to pay the 25% fee out of pocket. Personal information such as a social security number will now be required to get paid. Again, if this information isn’t given, the casino is expected to hold over the maximum 28% fee.
Tournaments completed before March 4, 2008 do not full under this umbrella, as in the casinos are not required to report the winning amounts.
The IRS has also issued a ‘friendly reminder’ that is necessary to report all poker winnings regardless of the amount. This includes all poker earning prior to the March 2008 law, stretching as far back as when you were a little little child.
So, we’re not allowed to ‘play’ online poker, but the government still expects its cut?
It kind of makes me wonder if there’s a tax form for drug dealer, who should report their earnings in kind, so that Uncle Sam still gets his.
Why there aren’t a couple thousand greedy politicians not losing sleep every night realizing the massive tax dollars they are missing out on everyday by not formally allowing online gambling just kind of blows my mind a little.
Do we need to draw it out in black and white? How much we could be earning?
Oh, we have.
Gosh, poker is just so immoral.
March 5, 2008 |
