Poker a Progressive or Regressive Tax?

fimbulwinter · #1 08-24-2005, 11:58 PM

sample arguments:

poker is regressive because smart people in general win more and also will in general be better off financially

poker is progressive because those likely to be big losers must have disposable incomes to lose all that money

thoughts?

coffeecrazy1 · #2 08-25-2005, 01:21 AM

Poker is a progressive luxury tax. The luxury is stupidity. The more stupidity you have, the more you are taxed, and vice versa.

And yes...variance is the tax write-off. Sklansky is the IRS.

I can play the metaphor game all night. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

ptmusic · #3 08-25-2005, 12:15 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Poker is a progressive luxury tax. The luxury is stupidity. The more stupidity you have, the more you are taxed, and vice versa.

And yes...variance is the tax write-off. Sklansky is the IRS.

I can play the metaphor game all night. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

The Nuts is having a really good tax accountant.

A bad beat is getting audited.

Bonus Whoring is finding nifty little deductions.

Rakeback is getting a bigger return than you expected.

-ptmusic

MtSmalls · #4 08-25-2005, 02:05 PM

Poker is a voluntary tax. Kind of like the lottery, which come to think of it, is the way many low limit players approach the game....

SheetWise · #5 08-25-2005, 02:17 PM

[ QUOTE ]
poker is regressive because ...
poker is progressive because ...

[/ QUOTE ]

Your post is digressive because ...
Just because.

#6 08-26-2005, 03:57 PM

The poker tax is probably a lumpy tax that hits the middle class the hardest in terms of proportion of income.
To play poker, you need to have a computer and internet access, or at least a hundred dollars or so to play at a casino.
Poor stupid people don't have the start up funds, so they play the lottery instead.
Rich stupid people may play poker, but their losses are a smaller fraction of their income than middle class people.

Of course, that's just counting the losers. I'd think most winning poker players would be middle class, too. Right now there are probably lots of semi-pros making 10-20k/yr, supplementing their income as network admins, as well as low-level pros making 30-40k.

It probably nets out as a small drain on the rich.