Online Gambling: The Tax Man Cometh

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Online Gambling The Tax Man ComethWith online gambling now in full swing across Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey, there are scores of winners who differ from the losing pack and actually have earnings to show for their online and mobile poker playing.

And if you’re among the lucky benefactors of these freshly regulated markets, Uncle Sam is looking for you.

With Tax Day fast approaching, an untold number of players must now pay taxes on the winnings they racked up in 2013.

In the years before regulated online gambling, offshore sites that skirted the law to attract U.S. players may not have cooperated with the Internal Revenue Service. But the legislation passed in Nevada and two other states means that the IRS has the means to easily trace online winnings.

“Nevada is the only state that does not have a data-sharing agreement with the IRS, but the federal government can deliver a summons to one of the regulated sites and track down a player’s records,” The Las Vegas Review Journal reports, quoting Russ Fox, a federally licensed tax practitioner in Las Vegas who has specialized in gaming for 15 years.

“Now if the IRS wants to get the records, they can,” Fox adds. “Those companies will be cooperating. They have to.”

To learn more about the taxing issue at hand, check out the full report here.

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