Read it all thanks for sharing OP. Doubt i would've held up as well as you did if im honest.

If your home country doesn't tax poker/gambling income even if you won the main event for $1 million why would it be a problem to just declare it all?

Not saying you should or shouldn't of done this just be good to clarify for any future trips.

Current monetary system is a new, improved, more efficient form of slavery.
The best part about it is that you The Slave endorse it, whereas if you were in chains that would not be the case.

And yes it is wrong that you have to declare it and there is nothing immoral in breaking such a law.
Just as there was nothing immoral with people hiding the Jews from Nazi regimes. Yet it was the law. Declare the Jew and move on with it (following your logic).

sick story, people can be super cruel

I got hassled this year at PCA. After an hour of waiting, customs agent calls me up and starts asking me advice on 1-2 NL hands. Finally lets me go and as I'm
Going up the escalator I hear them call me for last and final boarding call.

No poker tournament is worth this hassle

Seek mental help.

I think its very little chance for this to be fake. Someone said the details were to much, on the contrary, the details when something happens to you like this one, going for the majority of a week will etch into your mind, specific details, and rest will be a blur but with time you will afterconstruct the blur to your best of ability, some details will be wrong, or skewed, some will be right but the "gist" will be close to true.

My main argument for this being true is that he didnt go for any of the movie-stories. A matter of fact, no villains, no criminals or evil men apart from authorities that wanted to cram a buck out of tourists/priviliged ppl. Guy didnt even throw in a beatdown anywhere, but rather a warming story that in ****ty situations ordinary people will be friendly/helpful for no reason but to be friendly, only psychos/criminals/sociopaths are by default ****ty I take it as and that is giving me hope.

but yeah, the obvious repeated to death question is, why wouldnt you declare if your homecountry doesn´t tax on winnings anyway? Young gun mistake unfortunatly. You seem to have taken this experience well in the aftermath though and I am glad you got an new outlook on life and I hope it lasts.

Time to put the PCA back on a boat.

While siting in the waiting room of a mental institution (thanks to your advice) I just wanted to reiterate how citing "it is the law" arguments is invalid.

Laws are a collection of human junk that represented merely opinions of usually small groups that were able to write them and enforce them. They have been refined through the centuries but in no way have they reached a satisfactory level nor are they without huge amounts of hypocrisy. Unfortunately instead of moving forward there is a worldwide trend towards backward laws and laws that limit personal freedoms. One such example being this one.

My examples are deliberately exaggerated to illustrate the point but they still hold true. It seems they do not work so I will just stop.

Nice try but you're speaking to ******s.

The major point that everyone is missing in this and the other thread is that the OP's did not break any Bahamian laws. They made a false declaration to US customs. The laws/regulations that were violated were those of the USA. The only reason they were dealing with US Customs officials is because the US now has agreements in place in many places that allows them to move there border screening onto foreign soil so they can turn people away without having to deal with them in US facilities. The customs officers they were dealing with at the Bahamian airport are US citizens working for the US Government!

That US Customs and Immigration are targeting poker players and turning them over to be shook down and robed by corrupt Bahamian officials is the real scandal here. Makes you wonder who is getting how big a kick back on this scam?

Had there not been a US Customs check point at the foreign airport and the OP's been allowed to get on their flight and had cleared customs on landing in the US (which used to be the normal way of doing things) and been caught making the same false declaration on US soil the following would have been the result:

1) They get chewed out, had the fear of god and the US Government put in them and sent on their way being told not to be so stupid next time; or

2) If the customs agent wanted to be a dick, been given the option of paying a fine on the spot and they send you on your way. Which anyone would do because the other option is to be taken into custody till they can get you before a judge; or

3) If the customs agent wants to be a really big dick and you are a non US citizen you pay your fine and they refuse you entry to the US, which means they take you into custody till you can make flight arrangements to return to your home country or anywhere else that will take you. You would also be given notice that you are bared from entry to the US for a given period of time.

Moral of the story US Customs agents are among the last people you want to **** with.

I'm pretty sure 100% of the time you declare cash to US customs you are not going to be killed/tortured/oppressed for having the cash on you, so there's nothing noble in breaking this law in dissent of the law, regardless of how one actually feels about the law.

If you really want to make a difference, then I suggest taking over 10k cash onto weekly international flights, don't declare, then tell the agents that you have over 10k, they search and take your money. After about a dozen or so times, you'll be on national news and can have your platform to discuss the injustices of the law. That's what Rosa Parks would have told you to do. That would be far more effective than just smuggling money through customs and keeping quiet about it.

It's a shakedown simply because they know about the tournament and are looking for seizures; however, that's not like a real shakedown where they are seizing one's money on "probable cause", which happens everyday in the states.

You're missing the point.

These aren't people who are sticklers for rules. These are people who make up the rules on-the-fly to extort tourists who either don't know any better or are intimidated by unpredictable authorities.

It's hard for even the most seasoned travelers to deal with because you don't know the authorities well enough to figure out the proper c.o.a. You might be able to slip a bribe to an officer under the table in some countries while in others they'll say it's a criminal offense and subject you to an even worse punishment. Some countries you just stand your ground if you know they're wrong and don't give anything to work with. You simply don't know the culture well enough to make a move. This is doubly true if they do not speak your language because you can't get a feel for what they're planning to do.

OP's friend told the truth to the officers because he thought that he did nothing wrong and that being detained was either a mistake or just authorities being thorough on the job. He thought there was nothing for them to lie about and they'd be let go once the misunderstanding is cleared up. It is common for inexperienced travelers to assume that since their country plays by the rules that other countries do as well. Experienced travelers know that's not how the game is played and that corrupt officers will exploit marks if they can squeeze some cash out of them.

i think that's the main point ... sure in poorer countries it might be more likely, that you get screwed by officials, but this can happen in any '1st world' country too. let someone have a ****ty day or just don't like your face.

kudos to the OP, you might help others with your story!

The trouble is you are only giving examples and not making an argument from them.

I think the point you want to make is that law is not a source of morality, it should hopefully reflect morality but it isn't a source in itself, therefore appeal to law in a moral discussion is simply saying "some other people think X about morality" without saying why they are right.

The trouble with this argument is that there are plenty of unjust laws which have or had widespread public support, e.g. laws to restrict the spread of reefer madness. The argument should be based on a distinction between the public sphere, which is subject to collective democratic decision making, and the private sphere, which is not, and is the subject of individual free choice and free association.

For example if a majority of people don't want you to play online poker with other consenting adults, well tough because their votes just don't count when it comes to your private sphere, therefore it's not immoral to play online poker.

No sexual abuse indicated, everything was physical violence (some pretty extreme) and neglect and stuff from what I saw/heard. I didn't mention this but actually females had their own bunker to themselves that was the same size, and there were 3 of them with 60 beds.

$1 million would have been much easier to declare! Anything over $20k I would have declared no problem, the only reason I didn't was because it was between $10k and $20k which was low enough to split and be under $20k per person, which I thought was fine.

I just didn't think I had to do it. It's the same as asking "why don't you declare $1000 (or $5000, or $9000) when you go through customs?" Because you don't have to. So I was like well if we split it and I don't have to declare, that saves us 30-45 minutes at customs. My calculations were a little off it seems :P

Hehe, if I was trying to make a fake one it would've been a way better story!

Honestly the identity thing is mostly out of respect for my friend. Notice I left them out of most of it too, on purpose, in case it came out. We both have other lives now, and even though neither of us feel like we did anything that makes us bad people, you have a lot of people out there who will judge you for having any sort of legal trouble in your past, ESPECIALLY in a professional setting. I don't want to have my friend lose a job because I told a story from ages ago on the internet. And I know it's something they want to leave behind even more than I do.

Wow - Thanks for taking the time to write out your story. It had a big impact on me (and many others I'm sure)

Your logic was right, your story was just wrong. Being honest is not always best.
If you said you are pokerplayer and won 8k and your friend said the same thing im sure they couldve done nothing

Absolutely, but like I said, I don't usually lie by default when I don't think I'm doing anything wrong haha.

Absolutely sick story. Was reading in disbelief the whole way... hope you have put it to bed now for good. And so sick nothing is being done. 'Legal' kidnapping...

Well the examples should serve as implicit arguments that follow from the examples.
If they do not suffice let me make explicit arguments in bold and tie them to examples.

Laws were immoral, tyrannical and outright evil for most of humanity's past.

List of historic and contemporary laws that didn't sanction evil or even prescribe it is in my first post.

Failure to recognize wrongdoings of a particular system because it's the current state of affairs is widespread.

"Pater familias ... example"

Embrace it as it is or shut the fk up and GTFO should not be used as an argument the moment you bring something into question.

"Church laws/witch; lipstick/Yemen examples"

Not following an immoral law should not way heavy on one's consciousness.

Many historic examples were not following a law would in fact make you moral. "Declare the Jew example".

I think we agree there.
Unfortunately we live in a time where private sphere is heavily influenced by what the majority thinks is or isn't acceptable.

I am a strong proponent of personal liberty until it trumps somebody else's rights.

Following that logic if you and I were the only 2 individuals wanting to play poker in a country of 300 millions we should be allowed to do so and nobody should be allowed to interfere.

Today in most parts of the world others know and tell you:
a) what you should believe in
b) whom you should have sex with not to offend Yahve for example
c) how should you spend your income
d) what your children should be taught in school
e) exactly what mind altering substances you can or cannot take
d) how long you can work and when you should retire
e) take you 60% of the income because you are too dumb to save for yourself and you would spend it all on booze and hookers instead of healthcare and education if the state wouldn't take care of you

and the list is endless

That is true if you made it that far.
In the process you would probably lose couple of hundred thousands of dollars and your anal virginity, if not your health of life altogether.
After that they would ridicule you in the media or simply ignore.

However the rule of 10K is just the tip of the iceberg of intrinsically corrupt monetary system and the body of laws that protect it that we have in place today.