(Poker) Taxes & other Legal Questions

[flere-imsaho]

After a lot of learning, I think I've finally figured out how to win consistently, and I'm building a bankroll at 0.5/1. Thank goodness.

Looking waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the road, however....

Technically, playing poker over the internet in Illinois (where I live) is illegal. So far I haven't won a ton of money, so I'm pretty sure my cashouts won't blip an audit or something like that.

However, I know some of you here have either won a fair amount of money or know those who have. So, for you, two questions:

1. Is internet poker illegal in your state?

2. If this answer to #1 is "yes", "probably" or "maybe", and you've cashed out a fair amount, do you do anything special to "hide" this money from prying eyes, or just dump it straight in your bank account and hope for the best?

[TredWel]

1. It's such a gray area that I don't both worrying about it. Wake me when somebody gets arrested for playing online poker.

2. I dump it in my bank account, and declare it on my taxes (I think on my 1040) as miscellaneous income - gambling. I just give the IRS their fair share - it's not worth it to try and hide it and get audited, or even worse, get noticed by anti-terrorism or anti-organized crime agencies.

[GoSeahawks]

I know a guy that makes about 80k a year playing $400 NL and he hasn't payed a dime to the government. He also has a real job, so it looks a little more legit. His secret is not pulling out more than 10k at a time. But I wouldn't suggest it.