WSOP foreign players gaining an ITIN (tax identification number)?

[chambers]

Hi there, i'm from Australia and went over to vegas for the WSOP this year. I cashed in the main event for $45,402 USD.
Unfortunately, the IRS skimmed 30 percent of this off the top which meant i lost roughly $13K USD( they taxed me on my buy in fee as a total of the winnings!!!!)
Anyway, i've been told that i can get the majority of this money back in january next year, but that i need an ITIN number to do so when applying for the refund through the IRS.
Has anyone had any experience with gaining an ITIN number from outside the USA?
any help would be greatly appreciated- i could come back next year if i get some $$$ back.
Regards,
Chambers.

[Dale Dough]

WTF? This is just.. for lack of a better word.. gay. And by gay I mean beyond ridiculous tilting I hope someone gets kicked in the face for this HARD. A 30% tax even for foreign players? WTF WTF WTF?

Not to mention taking the buy in into account as winnings.. man whoever decided that this is OK really does deserve to have horrible things happen to him.

[chambers]

yeah dale it really sucks. This tax is one of the reasons that many international players don't bother coming over. Combine the tax issue with the minefield of players you have to dodge to get to the money. Example: for Australians, if you make the money in the lowest pay bracket (top 600 or 700) then you're winning $20K, which is then being skimmed 30% before they even give you a dime. so after your buy in you're left with about 4 or 5K profit...
This is after you've spent 5K on airfares and hotels and all the service and money you've pumped into the US economy...

[soko]

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/artic...,00.html#apply