[sawseech]

Interest takes the form of late-payment penalties, and those penalties are abusive (imagine a really bad credit card, and then double it).

Quarterly payments require two years of history to make a reasonable calculation, and if you are climbing stakes, it further cripples your earning potential and so constitutes an opportunity cost. Imagine setting aside half your winnings every 3 months, and also having to live. It's a joke, and is usually reserved for deliquent filers with history.

The present taxcode treats OPPs as it does contract workers or real estate representatives; it assumes that a poker player can operate without loss for extended periods, and that winnings which put the player in the black are as windfall - hence, no carryover of losses. This is flawed.

However, the fed cannot rewrite the code to resemble present capital gains law (the most reasonable approach) as it would generate masses of work and paper at a net loss to the taxpayer. Imagine everyone in vegas having to get a receipt for their net position at the end of every session, for every game. Imagine the IRS having to sort through it all. Imagine the complaints and the backlog in the courts.

Gambling would no longer be fun and people would go underground for their fix.