[NickMPK]

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From the perspective of the US governement this is a completely legitimate request, any prepared tax paying poker player is 100% prepared for a situation such as this. What is the rational for having a large sum of money of which a large % is going to uncle sam, yeah they get our interest but thats not their primary reason for the witholding... YOU ARE A GAMBLER AND YOU'RE GONNA LOSE IT BACK!!!

Most of us that are following the tax law are making quarterly tax payments anyways, this is just another mechanism of those quarterlies.

Nevermind the fact that there are some people that win tournaments for 1 mil+ then go broke by april and can't pay their taxes. So worst case you don't go broke and have a much smaller tax burden, best case tax return = ROBUSTO!

The major issue with this is that it stems as a result of defining tournament poker as a game of luck. So just as Billy Baxter went to bat in 1986 to create the IRS recognized career of professional gambler, someone needs to go to bat for us now (PPA,WPA,WPT,ect) and get poker included in other card and board game based skill game.

Easier said than done

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If you win $1 million and then lose it all back gambling, you should have no tax liability, because you can deduct gambling losses from gambling winnings.

I actually think it is reasonable for the IRS to withhold some of a person's gambling winnings. But I think it is unreasonable for a casino to report that you won money that you actually did not win (as they do in many circumstances in tournament chops).