hi guys!

Thinking about it, a professional poker player would prefer to live or to declare residence in a country with the following characteristics:

- Low taxes;
- Low government intervention;
- Respect for private property;
- Respect for freedom overall;
- Trustful Law system;
- Beneficial tax agreements with other countries for tax purposes, if you play in those other countries;
- Excellent infrastructure (education, healthcare, internet, roads, etc.)

One clue may be give by the Heritage foundation ranking of economic freedom. Among the top countries are: New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and others.
I dont know specifics about, for example, Monaco, Cyprus, Isle of Man, etc, etc., but for a professional poker player with a significant income it is not difficult to become a citizen or a resident of any of those countries.

Why do you think most formula one pilots declare their residence in Monaco?

If your country doesnt treat you well, just leave it. I would, if I could.

And dont forget to spend some money with a good lawyer, she may helps a lot and avoid unnecessary costs.

The ones who regulate are sure things, things being set. From an eu country one can go in the uk w at least 1.5k dollars per month incomes. Croatia taxes players 10 to 30%, and though the costs are only half of the uk, one needs to count taxes in as the uk is tax free, though not sure how often one needs to pay taxes in this case in croatia and if onr just buys in and out to a tournament instead, but i dont like stuff like that if there are options and i dont know the legal complications of such, eg. they do get ur records, plus u would be officially a resident, making things further complicated.

Bulgaria, 3rd the uk costs, most sure no player tax, pokerstars is there w uk type ok costs. Romania has no stars yet, so its not regulated just that one can be there as longs as one want if from the eu, but the player taxes seem to become like in croatia and it is illegal to play there but under romania licensed sites, and they will get ur records when they get sites there. All eastern europe, eu, countries wont offer u enough pension, so u need to cover all that for yourself. The legal and regulation case is not good enough or clear at eastern europe, eu, nor at many other eu places. Albania is also cheap but it has no regulations and player taxes though no there as known but is not clear, and all can change any time.

Eastern asia and other america is all unclear to illegal to legal to grey. While ur countries u listed are not possible for many reasons like getting there and getting residence, higher costs, taxes, regulations.

The uk and bulgaria are at this point possible as the best options i know but more are coming and ur limited to stars or so at bulgaria. Temporarily and so one could make other picks also, as long as one thinks it only temporary or part time. But more possibilities come when the regulations happen and they get pokersites.

anywhere but the USA

We talking about live poker or online poker? The answer would be quite different for each.

USA

canada

If you're looking for specific countries it's the U.S. hands down. If I was looking for criteria beyond those that you have listed, I would also look for highest population of people with disposable income. The population is way larger in the US than those countries you listed. There's a lot more wealth also.
There's a wide range of areas and climates with big poker cultures. Then there's places like Florida and CA with big cities( LA, Miami, SanDiego etc) with big poker cultures and lots of people with disposable income. Florida and CA have a combined 58 million people just between them.

Being Danish I feel the need to mention Denmark

My list is much simpler than yours:

-Can play on Stars
-Low cost of living
-Wont get murdered
-Hookers

I lol'd... But... I think you are lucky that there are hookers everywhere in the world.. At least that is what my "friend" tells me.

Of all the countries Ive played, london, uk the best to play.. but mad exp their brah

I like your list.

Any country with low cost of living where you can play on both Bovada and Stars has to be pretty good.

I didn't even think it was a question that the U.S. was hands down the best place to play live.

London isnt exactly a country is it? Can just move to some quiet little town in UK and it gets a lot cheaper whilst keeping all the advantages OP asked for...

A lot of these places have high cost of living/high rent or pretty much unaffordable real estate prices... They might have benefical tax laws for you, that doesnt mean you will make enough to actually offset the high living costs and then have something left after... And Singapore as i recently heared got shut down...

Bulgaria is an excellent choice if you're looking for an EU option. Plus, nature is awesome and nightlife is 24/7 in Sofia all year long and the seaside at summer.

As long as you keep a low profile you wont have any problems at all.

who cares about live poker

North Korea

Well maybe the OP does. We were just answering the question. No need to come in here and be a d**k. Go troll somewhere else

Why do countries like Denmark have no taxes on gambling winnings? Just curious if there was some rationale behind this.

People that like to do things other than sit behind a computer screen

Ontario, Canada ain't bad. Can play on Stars, or Bovada. Don't have to pay taxes on gambling winnings. Healthcare is taken care of. Probably the biggest downfall is lack of live places to play I guess. If you really do have in itch to play live, USA isn't too far away. Cost of living can be anywhere from reasonable, to expensive depending if you want to live in downtown Toronto, or a smaller city. Toronto probably provides just as much things to do (sports events, concerts, restaurants, etc...) as most big US cities.

hahahahahah... Cuba, Venezuela and Argentina also?! lol

Gotta be Canada.

My humble opinion: this is not only about poker or gambling (though some places like Macau clearly live from that). Low taxes, low government interventions, a free economy, personal freedom overal, tolerance and a trustful law system attract entrepreneurship, and big fortunes.

Brazil taxes 27,5% of your gambling gains, USA (correct me if I am wrong) 30%. If you live from online poker why to live in countries like these (apart naturaly for personal reasons, like Family, language, culture, etc)? One can Always have double citizenship (I guess) or declare residence in another country.

And live poker may not be a diferent matter, depending of your nationality and in which country you play different rules may apply.

I just have heard about a movement for charity some poker players are doing, by donating a fixed amounth of their gains. This is very inspiring and Worth of admiration, BUT I would not feel confortable donating for charity living in a country that overtax its cityzens.

Bruce Dickinson (the Iron Maiden vocalist, which I am a big fan) once said something like "I dont mind to donate a significant part of my income IF NOT by the government that takes me my gains by force". I completely agree.

Anyway, my intention here was to start a (in my opinion extremelly healthy) discussion. A tax specialist lawyer would say better. By the way, anyone there?