Barney Franks new bill

There has been a huge activity in the legal world of online gaming in
the U.S.A. as of late.Barney Frank has introduced a new bill that is
designed to freeze current UIGEA restrictions and give U.S. residents
the right to play poker online.Barney Frank the current Massachussets
representative is introducing a bill that will halt current UIGEA
restrictions and give the Department of Treasury the licensing and
regulating authority, and provides for the consumer, protections the
gambling ban does not offer, including age and identification
verification, responsible gaming systems, and measures against money
laundering and cheating.Of course we knew all along as soon as the
government could make a buck on it,we stood to see a change in the
laws,and this bill also allows tax on winnings, players used to
pocketing winnings on a regular basis without reporting them to Uncle
Sam will now find their take a little lighter. Frank includes clauses
that require the online gambling operator to set aside taxes against
winnings before paying patrons.The bill will adress age verification
issues and,and fair gaming practices along with measures against money
laundering and cheating.Now as to the how n why outside countries
should feel the need to be licensed and governed by an outside
authority,remains to be seen...i imagine the the profits of allowing
U.S. residents to gamble far outweighs the any hinderence to the
casino,but will this further open a door where all countries will
expect the same courtesy...this remains to be seen...to me it seems
unfair that a land based casino in Monte Carlo{for instance}doesnt have
to get any kind of licensing from the U.S. but if the same casino opens
an online casino suddenly the U.S. expects to get revenue and have a
say in licensing...whats next state and local licensing also?Though i
agree we need strict regulations and fair practices in online gaming,i
also feel the approach is narrow in its view of looking at it thru the
eyes of only the U.S.,instead a consortium of countries needing to ban
togather and form an alliance and create a world wide commission,that
has a focus on gaming licensing and regulations on a global context.As
for taxing...this i knew would soon poke its ugly head,but i,m
wondering if they will do the right thing and allow us the right to
also claim losses...if the governments wants part of the players
winnings they should also take in to account the losses the player
incrues in getting his wins,and since the amount could easily be
tracked..i feel this should be a major concern,as its not like the
untraceable amounts a player gets in placing his cash in a land based
casino...on the contrary,this also shows through deposits exactly what
the player wins and losses are. So the player should not be taxed on
the winnings of say $1000.00 win,without being able to claim the losses
he has incrued also....taxing winnings without being able to offset the
overall investment made by the player is short sighted and out of
date.....if your going to tax winnings then its only fair that a player
be allowed to write off his losses,in my humble opinion.What do you
think?

Well... not having read this bill, I don't know that I can form an opinion, but from what you have said here I will agree with you, especially on the last part of your post. It would seem unfair to tax an individual on that win without allowing you to deduct any losses from the account, which should have a record of all transactions for sure. There are provisions in the income tax system that would allow you to itemize deductions and thereby be able to offset your losses in one of the Schedules forms for itemization of deductions, however, it would not help any individual who does not itemize deductions... like me lol!

You might want to look at this idea of using the account to deduct any losses from the wins too... for this reason if nothing else. By using the account to deduct losses from a win say of $1,000... there would also be included in that any other small wins that would not be covered likely by this bill. So, in instances like that, a player would have to report all winnings in the account and thereby be subject to taxes on ALL of the wins minus the losses, and not just the bigger ones that would qualify for the tax under the bill. Taking this into account, might make it not seem so unfair also. Just food for thought and me taking on the devils advocate position for giggles lol!

i am all for the legalization and taxation of online poker. i am a big barney frank fan and have been waiting for this day. a couple years back i had 3 sites close down on me - jungle, grandpas, and tropical - about $500 never to be seen again. this was around the same time neteller froze my account because of the uigea bill propaganda. i started playing again in december after a 2 year layoff after obama was elected president because i figured it would soon be legalized. can't wait til this is all official.

Ya it actually sounds like Barney ain't full of rubbel. and he's probably gonna end up helping us out quite a bit. One by getting more and more attention and also helping with taxation of it. Should be pretty sweet, hopefully it'll get us all rich lol