Speculate: What if online poker were made legal/regulated in US? - Page 2

NakedNoggin · #11 05-31-2006, 05:55 PM

If the Gov can find away to tax your winnings then it will happen. Ebayers get away with it...why can't we?

Starfish · #12 05-31-2006, 05:57 PM

But you couldn't cheat IRS anymore...

Number27 · #13 05-31-2006, 06:54 PM

[ QUOTE ]
But you couldn't cheat IRS anymore...

[/ QUOTE ]

You can't cheat the IRS now. You still have to pay your taxes if you win money from online poker. They might not catch you right away; but they will catch up to you.

Colonel Kataffy · #14 05-31-2006, 07:08 PM

[ QUOTE ]
If the Gov can find away to tax your winnings then it will happen. Ebayers get away with it...why can't we?

[/ QUOTE ]

Taxing players winnings would be easy. The reason that so many forms of gambling are legal in so many places in this country is that the gov. gets a cut from the house. In order for internet poker to become legal, some group would have to put together a package where the gov. gets a cut of the house rake.

This seems more unlikely under the current circumstances. First, there is no incentive for established internet rooms to share the wealth, theyre doing fine on their own. Hell, they even get to advertise on tv as it is. Second, an unestablished US company would have a difficult time putting a deal together because of even if they greased the wheels of a local gov., that wouldn't mean that poker would be legal everywhere in the U.S. So, even if you got one state to back you, you could still have trouble with all the other states. Finally, the politician still has to sell it to his constituents and internet gambling is still scarier to the general public.

Starfish · #15 05-31-2006, 07:35 PM

Could it be possible that one of the states would allow it and tax it? Then they could collect tax money from people all over the USA. That would make other states look stupid.

Something like that is actually happening in Europe. We have zones with some degree of autonomy within a few countries that allow internet casinos while their home land doesn't or they have separate licenses. Also we have EU directives that guarantee everyone the right to play at those casinos (within the European Economic Area - EEA - that is a bit larger than EU itself) tax free because those casinos pay taxes were their license is. Currently there are licenses at Malta, UK, Gibraltar, Jersey, Eland and Sweden. I'm sure there will be more in the near future.

Colonel Kataffy · #16 05-31-2006, 07:44 PM

well, it could create some interesting legal issues that i don't think have been resolved. The question is, are you playing in the state where the player resides or the state that site is operating out of. This issue would end up being resolved by the federal gov. according to the commerce claus. Probably the courts would have the most control, but any issues of federal legislation would be tricky to deal with because the federal gov would be much more difficult to buy off than local govs.