Add Taxed Poker to U.S. Stimulus Plan, Says P.P.A.

February 4, 2009 (InfoPowa News) — With yet more economic stimulus plans on the cards in Washington DC, the Poker Players Alliance chairman, former Senator Alfonse D'Amato, used the opportunity to again appeal for the regulation of poker by the legislators on Capitol Hill last week.
 
Writing in the end January edition of the publication "Roll Call", D'Amato pointed out the financial advantages of regulating and taxing online poker, commenting: "The online poker industry and the millions of Americans who play on the Internet have been crying out for regulation and taxation. The absence of government regulation, and in fact the quixotic efforts to ban internet poker, has left U.S. consumers vulnerable and left billions in potential tax revenue on the virtual poker table.
 
"This is not a new tax. It’s not politically risky tax increases. Regulation simply allows for the collection of taxes that are currently going overseas to the other countries that have already seized on the global poker phenomenon."
 
D'Amato went on to re-emphasize the heavy skill element in the game as outweighing the influence of chance.
 
Last year a study by the international business services and audit group PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted that some $40 billion could be raised in taxes on poker over a 10 year span of time.