best countries to play poker in ??

[sebbb]

I'm a french citizen living in the US. Right now, I grind microstakes, but hopefully I will move up and end up having a decent $/hr from poker. I'm also thinking about going back to Europe or somewhere else at the beginning of 2008 and maybe play poker full time for a little while.


*****
My question is: what are the best countries to play?

I'm interested in:

- legislation (is it legal to play online? stability of legislation?)
- taxes (do I pay taxes on my winnings)
- having access to neteller or similar, and to fishy online casinos
- cost of living
- anything else you think would be useful to know

I've heard poker was legal and you didn't have to pay taxes in England and Italy. Is it true? Any other countries like that? How about Spain? (I speak English-French- and a bit of Spanish)

I'm mostly interest in the EU, but would consider anything else.

Thanks!

[nineinchal]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm a french citizen living in the US.

[/ QUOTE ]

If France was so good for poker, why are you playing here?

I couldn't imagine a better place for playing poker than the good old USA.

[sebbb]

I've been living in the US for two years and started playing online while I was in the US. I have a job here, but want to go back to Europe eventually.

France doesn't seem too good to play in (barely legal), and I don't see why you're saying the USA is that good right now(for online play). That's why I wanna know about other countries.

[whangarei]

[ QUOTE ]
I couldn't imagine a better place for playing poker than the good old USA.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a joke, right?

[Tappy Tibbons]

Didn't Italy force ISPs to blacklist all online gambling sites last year? I think the EU made them stop, but it doesn't sound like a good place to play from. The UK is very friendly to online gambling, but isn't the cost of living high there? I suppose, like any country, there are places that are cheap to live, but they may not provide the social life you want.

I'm a US citizen, but spent about 6 months in Budapest, Hungary playing online for a living. Cost of living was reasonable, nightlife was fantastic. I did notice that my internet went down for 5 minutes every day at 2:00 am, so I had to work around that. As for language, even Europeans think Hungarian is a difficult language to learn. Fortunately, most Hungarians in their 30s or younger speak English.

[sebbb]

I guess the UK seems to be the most online gambling friendly place. Is it true that you don't have to pay taxes there?

Also , are the European sites really easier to play at, compared to full tilt or stars? If someone beats 2/4NL on FTP, will he kill those games on party?

[JOHNY CA$H]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm a french citizen living in the US.

[/ QUOTE ]

If France was so good for poker, why are you playing here?

I couldn't imagine a better place for playing poker than the good old USA.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol. Sarcasm?

[sebbb]

Could anyone from the UK confirm that poker players dont pay taxes?

How about Scandinavian countries? Are there good legal conditions there? Is it hard to live there if I only speak English?

[Todpullen]

[ QUOTE ]
Could anyone from the UK confirm that poker players dont pay taxes?

[/ QUOTE ]

That is correct. If you are a UK citizen you don't pay taxes on gambling winnings - but it is probably best to keep records so that you can prove to the Inland Revenue that the income was from gambling.

This article contains pertinent info:

Hendon Mob UK tax article.

The cost of living here is pretty high though.

[Jeffiner99]

Great thread. Thanks. I hope a lot contribute to it. What about islands? Aruba? Bahamas? South America? Belize?
Anyone know?