Taxes on large Poker Tournament Payouts?

SundayTiger · Sep 20, 2006

I was wondering what these poker players do about their large winning and paying taxes?

I know most of them have a lockbox inside the casinos that they play at. I have heard of people cashing their huge winnings in chips and just keeping the chips in their casino lockbox. Would they have to pay taxes on chips still in the casino?

My buddy is friends with Joe Bartholdi Jr who won the WPT season 4 championship for like 3.5 million. He told me Bartholdi has all his winnings in the Bellagio safe in chips. If he slowly pulls out 2-3k a week, will he have to report that?

WVU · Sep 20, 2006

If he is American he has to pay taxes. He is playing with fire if he is hoping to slowly pull out the money without reporting it. All the big winners will be closely watched by the IRS.

sean1 · Sep 20, 2006

Ask the guy from survivor.If the poker player plays poker as a business (Which he does if he wins big) he can write off expenses (Plane tickets, car rentals, hotels, food while travling/2, etc) but he must pay taxes.Sean

D2bets · Sep 20, 2006

SundayTiger said:
I was wondering what these poker players do about their large winning and paying taxes?

I know most of them have a lockbox inside the casinos that they play at. I have heard of people cashing their huge winnings in chips and just keeping the chips in their casino lockbox. Would they have to pay taxes on chips still in the casino?

My buddy is friends with Joe Bartholdi Jr who won the WPT season 4 championship for like 3.5 million. He told me Bartholdi has all his winnings in the Bellagio safe in chips. If he slowly pulls out 2-3k a week, will he have to report that?

So he's got millions in a safe in chips? Wha???? Does Bellagio pay interest on his cash? If he's got that much money sitting there doing nothing then he's an idiot. :icon_conf