I don't really want to bring back a thread from 2009, but it's back to the past courtesy of a US District Court. On Wednesday, a District Court ruled that PokerStars and Party Poker are "banks" and FBARs must be filed for those accounts.
A little history: Back in 2009 the group at the IRS that handles FBARs said that poker accounts must be included. Come 2011, the regulations were changed by FINCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network). Their description said that such accounts didn't have to be included. I emailed the IRS and they said they didn't want FBARs submitted for such accounts.
An individual in Northern California was charged for nonwillful violation of the FBAR rules for three accounts: FirePay, PokerStars, and Party Poker. The defendant argued that these account were not such accounts; the DOJ said otherwise. The court granted summary judgement to the government.
(I've linked to the decision. A longer analysis
I wrote is here.)
While I have sent questions to the IRS on whether they want these accounts reported, as of now I'm forced to conclude that such accounts must be reported. This would not only include PokerStars and Party Poker, but current US-facing offshore sites such as Bovada. (This would not include US sites such as Party Poker New Jersey and wsop.com.)
Interestingly, an argument could be made (based on the judge's ruling) that gaming sites would need to be reported. Based on a literal reading of this judge's decision, say you play games on AcmeGaming.com, a UK-based game site. (It could be a skill gaming site, or perhaps a massive multi-player online game.) Since these sites allow deposits and withdrawals, they would also meet the technical description of a foreign financial account. But I digress....
In any case, I will update on this as I have more news.
-- Russ Fox
Last edited by Russ Fox; 06-05-2014 at 08:18 PM.
Reason: fix typo.