best countries to play poker in ??

[sebbb]

I'm a french citizen living in the US. Right now, I grind microstakes, but hopefully I will move up and end up having a decent $/hr from poker. I'm also thinking about going back to Europe or somewhere else at the beginning of 2008 and maybe play poker full time for a little while.


*****
My question is: what are the best countries to play?

I'm interested in:

- legislation (is it legal to play online? stability of legislation?)
- taxes (do I pay taxes on my winnings)
- having access to neteller or similar, and to fishy online casinos
- cost of living
- anything else you think would be useful to know

I've heard poker was legal and you didn't have to pay taxes in England and Italy. Is it true? Any other countries like that? How about Spain? (I speak English-French- and a bit of Spanish)

I'm mostly interest in the EU, but would consider anything else.

Thanks!

[nineinchal]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm a french citizen living in the US.

[/ QUOTE ]

If France was so good for poker, why are you playing here?

I couldn't imagine a better place for playing poker than the good old USA.

[sebbb]

I've been living in the US for two years and started playing online while I was in the US. I have a job here, but want to go back to Europe eventually.

France doesn't seem too good to play in (barely legal), and I don't see why you're saying the USA is that good right now(for online play). That's why I wanna know about other countries.

[whangarei]

[ QUOTE ]
I couldn't imagine a better place for playing poker than the good old USA.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a joke, right?

[Tappy Tibbons]

Didn't Italy force ISPs to blacklist all online gambling sites last year? I think the EU made them stop, but it doesn't sound like a good place to play from. The UK is very friendly to online gambling, but isn't the cost of living high there? I suppose, like any country, there are places that are cheap to live, but they may not provide the social life you want.

I'm a US citizen, but spent about 6 months in Budapest, Hungary playing online for a living. Cost of living was reasonable, nightlife was fantastic. I did notice that my internet went down for 5 minutes every day at 2:00 am, so I had to work around that. As for language, even Europeans think Hungarian is a difficult language to learn. Fortunately, most Hungarians in their 30s or younger speak English.

[sebbb]

I guess the UK seems to be the most online gambling friendly place. Is it true that you don't have to pay taxes there?

Also , are the European sites really easier to play at, compared to full tilt or stars? If someone beats 2/4NL on FTP, will he kill those games on party?

[JOHNY CA$H]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm a french citizen living in the US.

[/ QUOTE ]

If France was so good for poker, why are you playing here?

I couldn't imagine a better place for playing poker than the good old USA.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol. Sarcasm?

[sebbb]

Could anyone from the UK confirm that poker players dont pay taxes?

How about Scandinavian countries? Are there good legal conditions there? Is it hard to live there if I only speak English?

[Todpullen]

[ QUOTE ]
Could anyone from the UK confirm that poker players dont pay taxes?

[/ QUOTE ]

That is correct. If you are a UK citizen you don't pay taxes on gambling winnings - but it is probably best to keep records so that you can prove to the Inland Revenue that the income was from gambling.

This article contains pertinent info:

Hendon Mob UK tax article (http://www.thehendonmob.com/Articles/poker_and_the_taxman.html).

The cost of living here is pretty high though.

[Jeffiner99]

Great thread. Thanks. I hope a lot contribute to it. What about islands? Aruba? Bahamas? South America? Belize?
Anyone know?

[Josem]

[ QUOTE ]
1) legislation (is it legal to play online? stability of legislation?)
2) taxes (do I pay taxes on my winnings)
3) having access to neteller or similar, and to fishy online casinos
4) cost of living
5) anything else you think would be useful to know

question numbering by josem


[/ QUOTE ]
Answered for Australia:

1) It is legal to play poker online. I do not envisage any particular change in the law - it is not a topic on anyone's legislative agenda as far as I am aware*

2) Info here - http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=10128260&Main=10059146

3) Yes, we have access to Neteller, and to PartyPoker. PartyPoker can deposit straight into an Australian bank account (1-2 days processing time, I see)

4) Calculator here - http://www.gomatilda.com/calculator/index.cfm

5) Time zone is good for online poker - US peak time (evening) is Australian middle of the day.


*I work as an adviser to a Member of the Australian House of Reps - I think I have decent awareness on the issue, but I could be wrong

[eigenvalue]

Do you know something about your neighbour countries Luxembourg and Belgium? Does anyone know whether Online Poker is legal in Denmark or Austria?

[vilemerchant]

I think somewhere like Malaysia would be good, somewhere where you get a lot of bang for US$. First find out if you can actually make decent bank playing tho, there's no point grinding micros. Save up a proper roll from your wages and start playing.

[JavaNut]

It is legal to play online poker in Denmark, but the income is fully taxable, unless you play on a site that is already paying tax in the EU, which means that the POKER license they operate under has to be inside EU (usually UK or Malta). I use capital letters for poker, because they might have a sportsbetting license in the EU but the poker license is in Canada. Then you'll pay taxes, which currently is up to 63% of the last earned $. And Denmark is very expensive to live in.

[sebbb]

Thanks for all the interesting replies!

[ QUOTE ]
First find out if you can actually make decent bank playing tho, there's no point grinding micros. Save up a proper roll from your wages and start playing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've been building my roll playing the micros, and moving up gradually. Now I'm about to move up to 100NL. I think I'll wait to beat 400NL consistently before I make a decision. Probably not before 2008.

I also have enough savings to live for a few years, but the goal is to save more of course, not to spend my savings...

[suzy89222]

so what about italy??

[Taciturn]

I don't mean to hijack, but what is the current legal status of online poker in France? I searched this forum, and found a fair amount of information, but it was inconclusive. A number of laws were introduced regarding online gambling a few months ago, but it is not clear if they are in effect and if they should be interpreted as making online poker illegal. Also there is the issue of EU approval - it seems that the EU, or some EU entity, strikes down anti-competitive laws that would prevent foreign EU businesses from doing business in the country (assuming some form of the business - gambling, in this case - were permitted in the legislating country). Would the EU rule against this legislation? Would France have to respect the EU decision? (I recently moved to France)

Sure, I could probably find out what I need to know by googling more extensively, but I'm lazy and someone here probably knows.

[whangarei]

Argentina, hombre.
Living in Argentina thread (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=8899107&an=0&page=0#Post 8899107)

[PokerPunk]

[ QUOTE ]

*****
My question is: what are the best countries to play?

I'm interested in:

- legislation (is it legal to play online? stability of legislation?)
- taxes (do I pay taxes on my winnings)
- having access to neteller or similar, and to fishy online casinos
- cost of living
- anything else you think would be useful to know



[/ QUOTE ]

- legislation (is it legal to play online? stability of legislation?) Online gaming is not covered by legislation but Crypto, Full Tilt, Boyle Poker, Paddy Power operate out of Ireland, usually with 'licenses' from other jurisdictions. There is NO appetite for legislative change. Gambling culture is ingrained.
- taxes (do I pay taxes on my winnings).No
- having access to neteller or similar, and to fishy online casinos. Yes
- cost of living. High
- anything else you think would be useful to know
Casinos and Card Rooms (under the guise of 'private members clubs) are plentiful but currently operate in a very grey area. Recently a government minister took it upon himself to shout loudly about closing them down. Only to be shouted down himself by his ministerial colleagues. He did a u-turn and a working group is currently drawing up plans to fully legalise casinos/card rooms.

You also have an EPT, The Irish Open and a handful of other large, €1000+ buy-in events each year. Poker culture is strong and vibrant and likely to remain so.

Ireland is also well placed between mainland Europe and the US and has good transport links (usually at good prices) to other essentail poker destination.

The downside is the weather is usually crap but what do poker players care about that.

PokerPunk

[xerxesthegod]

This is an article about the legislation in France but it's not completed yet.

http://www.clubpoker.net/showpage/?id=826

[TheMetetron]

[ QUOTE ]
Argentina, hombre.
Living in Argentina thread (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=8899107&an=0&page=0#Post 8899107)

[/ QUOTE ]

Word.

I'm in the process of writing a ton of content about living abroad to play poker and all of the essential information that one would need. Give it a few weeks.

[sebbb]

[ QUOTE ]
This is an article about the legislation in France but it's not completed yet.

http://www.clubpoker.net/showpage/?id=826

[/ QUOTE ]

Reading this gives me a headache. From what I understand, the law is not really up to date because it doesn't mention online play. Also, it seems that you do not risk anything as a player.

[xerxesthegod]

He is not there yet. He begins talking about online. Basically before the new law the players wouldn't risk anything. But we know nothing yet about the rest of the story. passed july they are gonna apply the laws to online gambling. We'll see what happens. In the worst case scenario you just get an appartement in a country with online gambling friendly laws and get there every once in a while to withdraw your money. Italy, spain, Holland, UK,...

[sebbb]

ok so there's a new law in France. So wait and see, I guess...

[_Apollo_]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you know something about your neighbour countries Luxembourg and Belgium? Does anyone know whether Online Poker is legal in Denmark or Austria?

[/ QUOTE ]
In Belgium it's all a very grey area.
You have to pay taxes on your poker income but it's actually illegal to play online.
I'm not 100% sure about this (literally NOBODY knows for sure, but latest news is that you can get into trouble if you file as a pokerplayer. )
So belgium is not a good option if you want your winnings legalized.
[ QUOTE ]
so what about italy??

[/ QUOTE ]
Please, someone tell me. I would love to move there later this year and I think it's a good country for poker from what I have read compared to other EU countries.
Found one topic in english about this:
http://it.pokernews.com/poker-forum/topic1629/