playing online poker?

ok been playing online for awhile and playing the sit and gos and have been doing pretty good matching what my regular job pays about every month so the extra income is nice my question is before i get to serious or excited about it playing online poker in the us is absoutly legal and safe rightand legal to cash the withdraw checks and just playing on the sites at all.

This is a period . This is comma , This is question mark ? These make posts easier to read. What are you saying in this post? Are you asking if poker is legal in the US and is it safe to cash checks?

This +1

Got a little LOL out of it though

I know right? lol!

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EDIT: To answer your question BTW, yes.

Don't quit your day job just yet...and define what "a while" is...

been playing online for maybe 6 months now i would never quit my day job thats why i started playing online for extra income but recently i started asking myself if this is legal and any risk to it legally

I have cashed out and I live in the US and no 1 has put me in jail yet. I have only cashed $100 at a time out though. The sites themselves are located over seas and not in the US because gambling is illegal in most US states. To answer your question I have no answer. I would cash out as much as you want till some 1 says not to!! (And periods and Quatation marks do help!!!!)

LOL at the punctuation.

I would not reconmend quitting your job, its a regular income, enjoy the extar money.

If you really want to quit, why nit consider going part-time? That way you can earn enough to ensure the bills are all paid every month (plus get out of the house) as well as finding out if you enjoy playing poker 8 hrs a day as much as you think you will.

Clearly the punctuation comment was over looked.

One thing you might want to consider as far as getting in trouble with the law is reporting the income for taxes.

Im not sure how much you can make before you need to report it, however if you are making as much as a part time job you are probably there.

I went to a poker discussion and a grammar lesson broke out.

LOL!I was thinking the same thing ...Think it will get through this time?

The legalities of US Poker cash-outs may be a question for "Ask me anything" by Dusty "Leatherass" Schmidt.

Ask Me Anything (Dusty Schmidt aka Leatherass in the well)

The other problem can be solved with a third grade English teacher........

I for one, would be more that thrilled about paying taxes on a huge win, like the Sunday Million.

Many of us have withdrawn decent sums of cash. Some have declared it, some not. None of us have reported any problem or jail time because of our hobby. To some it is way beyond a hobby. I would guess you won't get straight answers from anyone doing really well online, or live for that matter.

But I have cashed a withdrawal check with no problems nor repercussions so far.

If you are approximately matching your weekly pay, you should probably claim it, pay the taxes on it, set up a retirement fund of some sort, and continue working for the foreseeable future. But that is advice from an old man whose retirement plans went awry.

You must report the Income and pay taxes. Do not test the irs. You should keep track of your expenses for your hobby as these are deductable if and only if you show a profit. See your tax profesional for the complete lowdown but many if then do not know the rules related to gaming so ask alot of questions before you trust them.

It also depends how much you are withdrawing. If you are playing lo limits & withdrawing a couple hundred / mo. i wouldn't worry about anything!! So what limits are you playing???

Who are you the punctuation police? You need to understand that there are many members of this forum where English can be their second, third, maybe even fourth language.

Also, not everyone is perfect. See the bold in your own posts above. This isn't an English punctuational and grammar forum, it's a poker forum. So lets leave the calling new members out for small errors alone.

Thanks!

Good point. I made a comment as well, but it was meant in good humor, still, you are right.

To answer the question in the OP. Online poker is not illegal in the US. It's illegal for financial institutions to process payments and withdrawals for gambling and poker sites.

Without going into a huge post, the enforcement of this law has not been passed yet and was recently delayed for six months this past Dec. So your bank may stop cashing checks in June, but you wont see any legal recourse as far as you breaking any laws. Your bank would.

Members of congress are working to legalize online poker due to the fact poker is a game of skill and not luck. So there is hopes that in the near future you will not have to worry about deposits and withdrawals.

+ 1,000,000
What a way to welcome a new guy to the forum????? It looks like it was his first post. These type of responses tilt me a bit... think about it... what's the point?

Currently the laws are ambigious at best,,The Main thought is that It is illegal for both the bettor and the fininical institution that processes the money. The Feds are making noise that they may investigate banks for processing the payouts?? But that is up in the air. If you are not moving thousands of dollars then you will probably not be noticed. Then again, the court may rule the law too broad and strike it down. The banks may use their lobbyist to alter the law? If you are not thinking of running for President of the US or looking to the CIA for future employment,,,or,,,moving 10s of thousands of dollars around..Then
Dont Worry,,
Play Poker,,,
And have em mail you a check,,then go to a check processing place to cash it

Havin a part-time job will make them swings at poker seem easier. Extra income is allways good so u wont go hungry lol.

i was being nice and blunt rather sarcastic i will give you that about it it can be difficult to read these when there is no punctuation at all it is difficult to determine what someone is trying to say a good post should at least have basic grade school grammar if you dont tell them then their posts wont be better however didnt consider the english language comment so i will take it easier next time

Then replies with no punctuation in his post. Real classy. Hypocrites are awesome!!!

poker is a past time.....period! I would never just devote my life and my financial security to the game.Having said that i am of the opinion thats poker is the best game in the world(next to basketball)and for me thats saying EVERYTHING.Gambling is illegal in most us cites but i have never heard of anyone going to jail for cashing out.I belive the question should be does the us banks honor the checks and if so how long do they usually take to clear?

I have been told that in June or July it is goinging to very hard for any USA poker player to cash and onlinepoker room checks because of some dumb law that starts then ... i need to open a bank account in some other country .... don't know if that will work or not

Don't get any notions of opening a Swiss acount.

They dont offer current accounts only savings and usually require a minimum of $50K.

Just thought I'd save you the time and effort of finding out about Swiss banking!

I suppose this is off topic, but its along the lines of the grammar thing. I have horrible grammar myself, but there is something I have been wondering. Is the use of commas instead of periods something that comes from learning English as a second language? I see a lot of people using ,,, as an elipse instead of ... I'm not trying to correct any grammar, I'm just wondering. Thanks.

How was this post over looked,i lmao.Wait should i went.then,or was,then.cool o well.

If a bill doesnt get passed soon(June),for financial institutions/payment processors will stop working with poker sites.So we all must make alot of noise now.Email,call,visit your Congressmen!

Some of the CC members who post on here use an auto translator. Most of them from my experience, aren't the greatest at translating poker lingo. Maybe English is OP's 5th language? Maybe OP doesn't have much of an education? In other words... who cares... why comment about it? (I don't get it??? )

So will there be mass withdrawls happening in May? (followed by even bigger withdrawls (jonesing) by players going busto & not being able to continue playing/donating to online poker).