Hi all !!

I searched for threads about the subject but didn't find anything. I am amazed that nobody posted on this subject before.

I know many of the biggest poker professionals have moved to London. And of course, London > Dublin in a lot of ways. I'm not comparing the two cities here.

But I have never heard about players intending to move to Eire. Nevertheless its situation toward poker players seem to be the best in the world for what I have read until now. But maybe I'm wrong, so I would like to know the opinions from better conoisseurs of the situation in this country.

I would like to get viable informations about this subjects :

1) A EU citizen player can go to Eire and stay as long as he wants ?

2) Will he be taxed ? What does he have to do ? I have read that gambling winnings are tax free in Eire but I can't say if he has to officialy declare himself as a professional poker player and then pay for social contributions to be in the right/legal way. Or does he have to just settle down and nothing to do to the administration since poker is not taxed there ?
So what ? U just have to rent a flat, settle down, stay min. 183 days here, grind, grind, grind, and u don't have to worry about anything else ?

3) UK seemed to be the best destination for players. Stable situation, tax free, etc. All the other destinations loved by grinders like Malta, Thailand, SA, etc, don't seem to be as good as UK regarding legal and fiscal aspects.
But now, with the new UK law, would it be better to move to Eire ?
Like I said, I'm not trying to compare the pros and cons of the everyday life between several countries. From what I have read, I find that Eire offer the clearest fiscal and legal situation for a poker grinder in the world now, in ~2015.
UK still offers a clear situation too but the .co.uk will pump some money from grinders in the next year. So...Eire seems to be the "UK before the new bill".

4) Is it viable for long term ? I have heard rumors that govt could pass a bill like in the UK to tax poker rooms but it doesn't seem to take off.

If anyone have infos about Eire... Because I don't understand why we never see this country in the gigantic number of threads about these subjects.
So maybe I miss something ! But now i don't see any other country in the world where :
- poker is legal
- poker is tax free
- where we can play on the .com (with no raised rake) and on the .fr for example (since it's not possible now in UK)

Let me know if u know a country with a better (or even equal) situation !

Thanks !!

Eire is tax free for gambling winnings. Live play though is an issue as there are not big on casinos or at least I have heard there are fewer regular decent live venues.

As an EU member anyone in the EU can go and live and work there. To get the tax advantage you would need to escape from whatever other EU territory wanted to tax you rather than wrry about Ireland.

The legal situation is not quite as sure as the UK where the sites are now licenced, there is new Eire legislation proposed to introduce taxes on sites - mostly to support horseracing and at a pretty low rate for that, the implications for poker are not fully clear.

They are unlikely to make huge changes but there is a big anti gambling lobby, tighter restrictions in general (bookies, casinos and machines) than the UK and problem gambling running at about 3 times the UK rate. Threy have no real clear laws yet for online so it is a very light grey market, nothing to stop and ECJ and common practice protection.

Overall Eire is a decent choice to grind online.

Thanks for the answer, i have read ur thread on UK and it's very interesting !

So u think that, even with the new bill, UK is still and will stay the best choice in the world, right ?

Dunno if some big pros from UK have decided to move on after the bill

I think the UK has the best tax and regulation regime. Player location is a bit more subjective.

In terms of player location UK is still amongst the best, Ireland is a contender but other non poker things would tip it for me. Ireland is a bit too conservative socailly for my taste a bit too Catholic. In poker terms access to big live tournaments and a larger live scene plus transport links might tip it to the UK.

Others may put sunshine higher in the list.

It took this long for someone to call Ireland "a bit too Catholic".


EDIT:

It is a joke.

Sorry for the hijack searched malta and saw this thread.

Looking for any information in regards to the tax and residency situation in Malta. Considering moving over there in 2015 with the new vip and especially the raked rebuys in the U.K.

Edit Im a U.K citizen.

I considered Ireland but having read this

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2014/1...-tax-19549.htm

Seems likely they will go down the same route as the U.K shortly.

Also This one is for Richas How safe do you estimate malta is from regulation? With my limited knowledge i think its fairly unlikely with such a small population and heavy gaming industry.

Cheers for any info.

Edit again

Found the malta thread in the travel forum so only really looking for the chance of regulation now if richas can help.

I think you have the risk question sussed.

We have the "bad" news for the UK - but I still hope the Stars rebuy stuff will go away like the auto rebuy stuff did. The VIP change re tax is trivial really.

Ireland has some risk in the 1+ year time frame re taxing poker pots not just rake.

Malta is a tiny place with a big(ish) gambling industry so unlikely to see any nasty tax changes.

With my eldest picking her GCSE choices this week I'm just glad to opt for the stable (now) UK option. Always fancied a trip to Malta though, the WWII air battle stuff is fascinating stuff but I suspect that a couple weeks would cover the sites/history though not the nice weather.

Up
What's the actual status?

I did end up moving here.

Nothing really has changed seems very similar to the UK no tax for players at all. Same tax treaty with the USA so winnings are tax free in vegas. Can still play on stars.Fr after the legislation as Ireland is on the stars.EU client howveer winamax is now banned.

ty a lot for the update

Is the tax still 1% of the bets (pot?) making it similar to the Mediterranean rake?

Unibet is still not accepting players from there because of that and because of some 10k+ licensing cost. Many other sites then also figure not to for the same reason.

Party and Pokerstars seem to accept them, but how is that possible with the 1% monster?

Or I did see the VIP system was decreased for us non licensed countries also, so it seems we are paying their taxes, and later the whole VIP system pretty much disappeared from Stars.

But what about Party, how can it be possible if they have the same deal there as everyone else and we are not paying the bills?

Another thread indicates there are taxes for the pros.

IIRC the Irish Tax was 15% of rake paid by Irish players in line with the UK. However, they announced that this was increasing to 25% a few weeks ago.

It looks like UK tax on poker is going up to 21% next year as it has been bundled together with remote casino gambling.