Taxes Question

[wegs the wegs]

Hello everyone!

I'm a beginner at poker. I started playing hold'em about a year ago in live games and started playing the freerolls and fake chips on Pokerstars fairly regulary at that time as well. In April I heard of VictorChandlerPoker.com, a United Kingdom based site that will actually give away real money (US dollars) by playing a free single table limit tournament, the winner taking 5 cents, 3 cents for second and 2 cents for a third place finish.

I played a few of these tournaments, easy to place in, and after a few days was playing the site's dime and quarter buy-in tournaments. I progressed over the next few months playing the $10 and $15 STT and won money on a consistent basis. It is now July and I am up to 500 dollars and looking to make my first withdrawal.

I read that gambling winnings in the United Kingdom were not taxed by their government. Myself, living here in the good ole US of A was wondering if money that is won on a UK internet site would still be untaxed, doubting that the American government would let that slip through their greedy hands. Are there rules on this sort of thing? Anywhere I can go to find out what to do about this? Thanks for all your help. This site is wonderful.