ONLINE TAXES -- NEW THOUGHTS

[MrGrob]

I had a friend that worked closely with a CFO and other officers of a failed online casino. He had this to say during an e-mail chain discussing this topic with me. Looking for thoughts on some of the new stuff he has noted on this subject (at least, I believe this is new stuff).

"As the CASINO, you have to keep track by table by day. As a player all you have to do is keep track of when you trade cash-for-chips and chips-for-cash. You people get so wrapped up in whining about its a skill game so it shouldn't be illegal... that you take something as simple as accounting and always try to find a way to stand on your heads to turn an Easter-egg-hunt into a butt-****-a-thon.

I cannot believe how much energy y'all put into worrying about when you have to count something as recognized revenue for tax purposes. That is by far the least of your problems if you are successful at this. Worrying about the timing of the taxes is like fretting about an ingrown toenail while you have Ebola. Let's gloss over some of the bigger nastier problems. When you withdraw the money, since all of the happens offshore, you are repatriating funds. Do you know what the daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual limits are on funds repatriation without having to declare it to Customs? Are they fixed- or rolling- time intervals? What happens to you if you fail to declare and get caught? Then there is the mother of all online gambling 'problems' where you poker guys have a much bigger problem than the blackjack weenies. Above certain transaction thresholds you will be required to identify the source of funds. If you are playing blackjack against the house, you need to have confirmed records of the houses identity. Given the nature of poker moving money directly between players, if you move enough volume of money, you would have to have confirmed, validated identity for EVERY PLAYER AT EVERY TABLE YOU PLAY! What are the limits of the transactions before you need to maintain this information? What if you are unable to obtain this information? What if you thought the info you got was legit and it turns out to be false?

Between the drug cartels and al Qaeda, everyone is very twitchy about money laundering."

Anyone?