Pokerdb and the IRS

[napawino]

I PM’d “N 82 50 24” with this question and he suggested throwing it out to the forum.

Does Pokerdb inadvertently help the IRS more easily identify poker-playing tax cheats?

Of course the answer is PAY YOUR TAXES, but assuming there are some people that won’t, does Pokerdb make it easier to identify these people? Since the U.S. IRS requires gross gambling proceeds to be reported, if a taxpayer reported less than the amount of winnings posted on the database wouldn’t that be a fairly automatic violation or invitation for an audit?

Obviously this information is available via subpoena from the poker sites themselves (assuming that in the era of terrorist money-trafficking, the sites would comply), but Pokerdb puts the information at the fingertips of even the laziest of IRS agents. Does the fact that pokerdb only tracks PokerStars tournaments and not the cash games or other sites affect either PokerStars or Pokerdb?

I’m not a big winner and I’m as anal retentive as they come with my records and filings, but I wanted to throw the question out to the group.

-Napawino