Bad news, guys, it seems that finally the damned regulation will come to Spain next year. I've read some technical articles about it and, if I am not wrong, these are the consequences: - it only will be allowed to play against people from your own country - texas, omaha, stud & draw only games allowed - there will be limits for buy-ins and cash tables - you should declare every profit and pay the corresponding taxes (OMG!!!!) If you know something else about it, please let us know.
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Lately I have seen a lot of Spanish players online, so definitely not good news. If you have to declare profits and pay taxes, do losing players get to deduct losses from their taxes too?
Joined: May '08
Location: Sweden
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 1362
This seems like a bad trend. I have noticed that it has started to become harder and harder to make money out of online poker. Since the americans dissapeared it feels like half my profit at Ipoker has evaporated. And now this.
And, since my profit was not that big from the beginning, this is certainly bad news.
Or maybe it is a sign of that the pokerboom is finally dead. All the fish have been eaten, people are getting better all the time, and me, the occational player, has become their fish?
Joined: Nov '10
Location: Serbia
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 2087
NOOOO!!! Just dont take Spanish fish away!!!! Biggest maniac donks in poker! Sorry Messiah but its fact. WHAT IS HAPPENING? In the end everyone will play only with players fromtheir own country! That is bad for small countries where poker is not that much popular... Not good for anyone tho...
Posted by mahdrof: Lately I have seen a lot of Spanish players online, so definitely not good news. If you have to declare profits and pay taxes, do losing players get to deduct losses from their taxes too?
Of course not ... you only pay if you win. Who always wins is the Government, of course! Damn!
Posted by jovicakralj: NOOOO!!! Just dont take Spanish fish away!!!! Biggest maniac donks in poker! Sorry Messiah but its fact.
lol ... Don't apologize, it's completely true! In my case, I want that everyone still considering me a donk because I'm spanish ... this is the key of my success!
Posted by jovicakralj: WHAT IS HAPPENING? In the end everyone will play only with players fromtheir own country! That is bad for small countries where poker is not that much popular... Not good for anyone tho...
I don't know how the future will be. Probably it will be better in my case because I love to fight against spaniards but I guess it will be harder to fill a table. My $/h will go down for sure, even more if I have to pay the taxes! It's a desaster ... The worst thing is that I'm preparing to play the Sunday Million with the VPP I made. I suppose I must do it this year because next year Sunday Million will become "Los mil euros del domingo" (a thousand euros in Sunday). Shame!
Joined: Jan '10
Location: Indonesia
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 1875
could they control like that ? Or just Spanish poker site ? if yes, still good not totally block. By the way why gov press to much against poker site ? Strange . could we protest against them, lol.
We just use our own money for fun or profit not use gov's money. Dammmmmmmmm
Joined: Feb '10
Location: Suriname
Age: 47 (M)
Posts: 1189
Well this really bad news, I hope it does not affect other european countries and South-America, because that would be bad for online poker play in general.
Joined: Nov '11
Location: Netherlands
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 91
In The Netherlands you pay 29% tax fee on any poker cashout. You have to report it to the tax company and they will deduct it, I just don't report it when I cashout. ^^
But if they find out which sometimes will happen they will confiscate the fee's you didn't pay and you have to play alot of extra money.
Joined: Jan '09
Location: Italy
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 3871
Unfortunately I know very well what you are talking about: in Italy this regulation has already started a while ago. Almost every .com poker room which I was playing wrote me to close my account and withdraw the money because I would not be able to play real money games; and almost every "international" poker room doesn't allow italian players to create new accounts anymore. Beside to this lot of .it pokerrooms are born lately an we are only allowed to play there but: - traffic is lower - rake is higher (as it includes taxes) - most of them doesn't even offer omaha or 5card draw or fixed limit or other games - rakeback is not allowed: you have a sort of rakebake with the various VIP systems but it is not the same thing
I have to admit there is also a positive side: now there is a lot of advertising on the TV and media in general about online poker and the consequences are lot of newcomers at the tables
Also French has the same regulation.
My opinion about it.....totally s**t I cannot face players from other countries: it goes against avery social and cultural trend: we talk about integration, we have had shengen agreement and so on......and then they close italian, french and now also spanish players in their ghettos.
Joined: May '09
Location: Spain
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 1331
Hi guys!
As spanish poker player i feel so sad. Especially for the way of taxes that spanish we´ll pay. In a reasonable country taxes are paid in function of the net profit. Here.. NO!! every pot i win will be taxed. Poker is spain is dead until the UE re-regulate it.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Croatia
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 1738
Sorry to hear about what will happen in spain, the online poker world is just getting smaller and smaller . hopefully it wont spread around europe at least not on those terms, i mean, if i have to pay taxes for my eventual profits, at least let me play who i want to... If it becomes like so here in croatia where i live who will i play against? 100 maybe a bit more if im lucky. ill have beter chances of winning something on online casinos playing slots
Yes, bad time to play poker online here in Spain. I knew Italy and France had the same situation some time ago, Belgium is going to have as well .... Today it's not easy to earn some money from poker but it will be harder after those changes. In Spain, people only appologize when the laws affect to football or bullfighting. It's a shame. I'm not sure playing in Spain will worth it so ... moving to some other place??
. hopefully it wont spread around europe at least not on those terms, i mean, if i have to pay taxes for my eventual profits, at least let me play who i want to... 
