Has anyone from the US tried a European bank account?

Has any U.S. players tried opening a European bank account to fund your poker sites? If someone has please explain the process, and if you're happy with it.

The exchange rate would eat your money up. The dollar is not worth crap over there.

Ahh, but what about an off shore bank account that stores your money in US dollars? No exchange rate there, just fees for the off shore convenience (so I've heard).

Sorry JD, but used professor google to see why an offshore account is possibly a very bad idea. From askmen.com:

"Legal issues

If you’re a U.S. citizen, it’s not illegal per se to open an offshore account. If the underlying reason, however, for setting up the account is an illegal act, you might be keeping your money safe, but you could still be in hot water. For example, if you’re accused of tax evasion and you’ve sent the funds abroad, you could still face criminal charges here. The offshore bank account, however, may remain free from the long arm of the law.
Risk

When you bank in the U.S., you can be secure in the knowledge that your money is insured by the government. No such guarantees exist with offshore banks. In other words, a country could have a coup or a natural disaster or an accounting scandal one day and all the money could be gone the next. Furthermore, you could find yourself scammed; it does happen. Remember, this is a business built on skirting the law, so you won’t always deal with the most honest people (but that varies by country)."



You might be better off opening a European account. Gaining money, then withdrawing when the U.S. gets a new president and the U.S. dollar becomes stronger. But, you'd probably have better luck playing the stock market then waiting for that to happen....hmmm. or is it the other way around. You want the U.S. dollar to become weaker since your money is in Euros. . bah. I don't know. Not a good idea unless you've got a summer home there anyway. lol

Hmmmmmm.....converting dollars to Euro...depositing Euros and converting back to dollars......

Isn't that like converting from fahrenheit to Celsius and back to fahrenheit?? It's still the same temperature as long as no one skims a degree or two as a conversion fee.

There are fees involved in both conversions. And you are assuming you will win and cash out lol. I could never make that assumption.

Sorry dax...just couldn't resist
yes, there usually are fees...and yes, it takes a $1.336 to buy one Euro or .748 Euros to buy a $1 without the fees (a one Euro buys $1.336).

Depending on the day you convert and the day you convert back, it can cost you more than the fees or less

Actually, if you'd open a bank account with one of the bigger banks in the Netherlands (Postbank, ABN AMRO, ING), and would play on PartyPoker you could make use of 'iDeal'. This allows you to deposit directly from your bank account in EUR. (No conversion fee). Withdrawing from partypoker to the bank account takes 3-5 days.

PartyPoker actually implemented iDeal due to me suggesting it to them. I feel bad for the pokerholic Dutchies. :P

Figure out a way to get PP back into the US, and you will achieve HERO STATUS. We'll even lobby Jamie Gold, (the Hollywood producer) to figure a way to get you a bit part on the TV show................

I'd think this is fairly simple. PP cashout -> Dutch bank, Dutch bank -> Paypal NL, Paypal NL -> Paypal US? -> Paypal US -> Your US bank account. Maybe too complex? Ofcourse, you could also just wire it from the NL account to the US...

Are we still forgetting that most sites block US IP addresses?

These are valid concerns, yes. But they are still just concerns. I seem to recall a small Savings and Loan scandal that happened right here in the good ole US of A a few years back. But surprisingly we still keep much of our money in banks.

And of course, for the record, I would never condone doing anything illegal. This is a hypothetical discussion.

All the concerns really mean is that you need to do your homework and know what you are getting into (just like buying a house, a car, or stocks). Offshore banking can be rigged, just like poker. But just because it can be, doesn't mean it is. Like we always tout with pokersites, the off shore banks make a lot of money by keeping the funds safe and maintaining client privacy. And realistically, depending on how much (or really how little) money you're talking about, it likely wouldn't make financial sense to go offshore like that. But it is still an option.

Concerns maybe, but wouldn't you be opening the offshore account to basically attempt a string of several illegal acts? Playing online poker in the U.S., not paying taxes on your winnings....etc? But, I guess Robert Blake and O.J. had their concerns also, it's just how far you want to go to do something you probably shouldn't be and hope you can get away with it. I'm not saying you shouldn't, the government is. That was all hypothetical and I consider O.J. and Blake innocent of course. I wouldn't try the offshore plan personally, even if I was sure it wasn't a scam. If you've got enough money to attempt it, you'd probably be better off just going down to a real casino and taking on The Coproration, right? Who knows.

Doing these things and opening an offshore bank account are mutually exclusive events. I would venture to guess that no more than a very few US players on this site maintain an offshore private bank account. Yet they all seem to be playing poker and some of them winning. I'm sure everyone is also reporting all of their poker winnings on their tax returns already, so is the implication that they would then stop reporting this poker income if they had an offshore account? Oh, wait, they're probably not reporting it now either.

Well, they were acquitted after all, so they must be innocent right?