[bluefall]

To regulate poker within the US and draw taxes, what if the US government installed a separate rake-like tax? I would suggest this would have to be about 2.5% of the pot, perhaps mandating the site charge no more than 2.5% additional rake. My proposal would then eliminate the requirement to report poker winnings as income.

To make this work internationally, there would need to be a way to tax only US citizens meaning the sites would need to be very strict on verifying people's identities. So any pot an American wins, the gov't taxes the pot 2.5%. They would also take half of the typical 10% tournament entry fee.

I can't see this working without the tax portion of the rake being uncapped so that people aren't earning millions without paying a significant tax. That would seemingly limit the amount of super high stakes games unless those pros think their edge is enough to overcome the uncapped rake.

So the gov't gets their take, sites pay their tax by earning only 2.5% instead of 5% rake, and players pay more tax by playing in rake-uncapped pots.

The best thing for the government is that winning and losing players are taxed because it's done on every pot a US player pulls, not based on "sessions." Plus they'd be guaranteed to get their take since players aren't required to report their income.

It would then make sense to teach poker in schools to: 1) tax more and, 2) improve the trade deficit by taking more pots off foreigners.

Thoughts? This tax strategy seems balanced and makes sense to me. If I missed someone else's post on this idea I apologize.