just some speculation here:

if i walk into a casino in atlantic city and win $10,000, i fill out the forms and i get issued a 1099 by the casino.

if i walk into a casino in atlantic city and put down $10,000, double it to $20,000, then lose it all...for a net loss of $10,000 playing blackjack. my totals are: $20,000 in wins, $30,000 in losses...and i fill out no paperwork, and don't get issued anything. no 1099s, nothing.

you only get sent a 1099 when your'e a winner in a casino, or cash out more than x amount ( $5,000 in nj if i'm not mistaken)

so if you play low limits, and never have more than 5k in a casino and are a loser at whatever you do, you have 0 chance of getting sent a 1099. wouldn't an online casino work the same way? and only issue a 1099 for over a certain amount?




now, it could be different, becuase i'm sure they want to know exactly who wins, regardless of the amount...but just saying, this is currently what happens at a casino, woudlnt' be surprised if it stays the same way. the govt has this way of being stuck in the stone age with a lot of things/practices

Nope. Casinos issue W2-Gs, not 1099s. For poker, they are only issued for tournament net wins of $5K or more. They are not issued fo cash game winnings.

Nope. You have only a one-session loss of $10K. Your entire contiguous play of blackjack that day counts as one session.

Gambling winnings are reportable by casinos on W2-Gs, not 1099s, as follows:

For an online casino, it will work whatever way is contained in the federal bill for online casinos. The federal bills so far added a year-end report from online play that reports gross winnings, gross losses and net winnings for all play. We don't know yet what the new bills for poker-only will say in this regards.

But what is your point? All gambling income is subject to income tax whether or not the casino reports it. That's true now, and will be true after a bill is passed. Are you saying that casino reporting for online play may force more players to be in compliance? This is actually one of the strong arguments on Capitol Hill for passage of a bill.

Couldn't the whole issue be fixed relatively easily by simply explicitly defining a "session" as a relatively continuous event with respect to poker? Would it really be that difficult to add a line into a regulation bill stating something to the effect of "With respect to online poker (or just poker in general) a session will henceforth be defined as the one year period from Jan. 1st to Dec. 31st"

Logically this makes sense, it seems to be what most players do anyway since, particularly with SNGs and MTTs current reporting requirements are ludicrous for any fish without pokertracker, etc. and it eliminates the current problem as outlined ITT. I don't think getting a bill regulating online poker is necessarily going to be easy, but IF we can get a decent bill I have to believe the above, or something similar, could be added to it without too much trouble

You mean sneak in a line like that and slip it by the House & Senate committees and all the Congresscritters? Not likely. Especially since we don't write the bill to begin with.

But, lobbying for a provision to allow netting of wins & losses for online play is a real possibility, imo. I am curious to see what makes it into the new Barton bill in this regards.