Awful WSOP news from PokerStars

[teddyFBI]

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Any predictions on the number of entries in the Main event this year? Due to Harrahs thrid party rule im guessing 5900

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Not a chance.

[b]By the way, important Q, which we don't yet seem to have the answer to: will Harrah's restriction on 3rd-party registration by poker sites ONLY affect sites that still accept US players? Or is it a blanket restriction on ANY 3rd party registrations? Important b/c non-US sites will still prob send 500 - 1000 online fish...

[teddyFBI]

<font color="red">Here's the front page of the worldseriesofpoker.com website (presumably maintained by Harrah's).</font>

[ematz]

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LOL @ OP upset because he can't cheat on his taxes now.

FTW your entry is deductable as a gamling loss anyways.

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So you are definitely itemizing your concierge purchases on your '07 return, correct?
link

What about any t-shirts or books you've earned through various poker sites?


If I were to estimate the % of players who used the concierge service but didn't report, i'd probably go with 95%.

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You're probably right but they are still cheating on their taxes. The tax system isn't fair but it's still the law.

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You don't pay taxes on FPP purchases, it is not taxable income. If you have a credit card that gives you back 3% cash rebate on all your purchases, you don't pay taxes on that cash payment from the credit card company either. If you get a free airline ticket thru frequent flyer miles, that is not income, and you don't pay taxes on the value of the ticket.

A rebate received from the party to whom the buyer directly or indirectly paid the purchase price for an item is a reduction in the purchase price of the item; it is not an accession to wealth and is not includible in the buyer's gross income. Rev. Rul. 76-96, 1976-1 C.B. 23; Rev. Rul. 84-41, 1984-1 C.B. 130.

Some credit card companies allow you to gift your rebate to a charitable organization. In this case, you would have a charitable contribution that's deductible if you itemize on Schedule A, and you don't have to recognize the income from the rebate.

Of course if you use the credit card for business, your rebate is a recovery of a tax benefit item so that would be considered income. For example, if you had $10,000 in business purchases and the credit card company refunded you 1 percent or $100, the $100 would be considered income of the business or an adjustment to the cost of the purchases.

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I think you are wrong but sincerely hope you're right. I'll let my accountant sort it out April next year.

[Niediam]

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Think of it this way... would you be not required to pay any taxes on poker winnings if all pots were raked 100% and then later the sites 'refunded' you 95% of the rake?

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If all pots got raked 100% and then the the rake refunded, the refund would go to the contributors to the pot, so wining would be meaningless anyway.

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I wasn't specifically referring to rakeback even though that would work the same thing... I mean if the site were to rake the entire pot but give the winner a PokerOnlineRocks!.com Super Bonus Point for every dollar raked and you are allowed to trade in your Super Bonus Points for $1 each (or if you want you can trade in your points for goods where the points would be valued at $1 ea.)

[ilya]

Ok, so if the lammers thing won't work because they can't get $$$ into the US, what about giving out lottery tickets to everyone who shows up in their Vegas suite? The scratch tickets would offer 100% odds of winning 10k, redeemable by going online and entering the code you'd see when you scratched the ticket. No PS rep needs to enter the US with money.

[MicroBob]

hilarious.

[cardcounter0]

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Ok, so if the lammers thing won't work because they can't get $$$ into the US, what about giving out lottery tickets to everyone who shows up in their Vegas suite? The scratch tickets would offer 100% odds of winning 10k, redeemable by going online and entering the code you'd see when you scratched the ticket. No PS rep needs to enter the US with money.

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Maybe they could get suites at the Bellagio, because all the suites have a fax machine. Then PS could just fax the cash to you.

[spino1i]

You dont have to pay full taxes on the 10k you silly goose! When you cash out the 10k you gain 10k in income, but when you use it to buy into the WSOP main event, you lose 10k in income, so net income = 0, meaning you dont pay any taxes unless you place in the main event. Before you would have had to pay taxes on placing in the main event too!

[davebreal]

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You dont have to pay full taxes on the 10k you silly goose! When you cash out the 10k you gain 10k in income, but when you use it to buy into the WSOP main event, you lose 10k in income, so net income = 0, meaning you dont pay any taxes unless you place in the main event. Before you would have had to pay taxes on placing in the main event too!

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give me the old system, any day.

[LearnedfromTV]

Two or three posts here reference a Stars Vegas suite. Why do people think they will have one? In my mind this was less likely than finding a workaround for the main event entries.