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Poker Players Selected to Pay Taxes In a confusing move for Finnish citizens, the country’s latest tax crackdown has seen lists of winners being used to track down delinquent taxes. It is customary for land casinos and online poker rooms to display lists of the latest winners to celebrate their recent victory. Usually it’s a thing of pride to have one’s name up for all to see. However, it has become a way for Finnish tax authorities to seize the sitting ducks that are the poker players, as they have been “randomly” selecting people from those lists to contact and order to pay backtaxes for the last five years’ worth of winnings. Usually, Finnish citizens are allowed to play and win money through the European Economic Area, but anything outside of that is unregulated and easier for people to evade tax duties. For this reason, people have been sneaking by without paying taxes, but then again, many people were not aware that they would still owe taxes on the money that they won, since it was outside the jurisdiction of their country’s poker and online casino regulations. Furthermore, many players are unclear about tax rules and application, and how the political divisions affect the law. All over the world, people are seeing a struggle by the various governments and legislative bodies who are at a loss as to how to regulate online poker and casinos. The reason for that is that they are trying to apply old school logic and ways to a new regime, and often are refusing to accept that times are changing. As with the American Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, both citizens and governments are unsure of the rules, and yet the government is still trying to enforce them. Internet behavior in itself is already difficult to regulate, and once domains and registration and winnings and taxes are involved, all those components complicate everything. The world needs to figure out online poker and casinos, and fast.
Back to August 2008 Archive. |
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