shadroch said:
You enforce it exactly the way the government is doing, but charging the major players with breaking the law. I'm not sure why that is so hard to comprehend.
What will get interesting is when their attorneys offer to give up the names of several million US residents that didn't pay any taxes. Will the government go after all the little fishies or just be happy to cut off the flow.
I don't know the government view (hey, it's not my government), all I'm saying is - national laws are not enforceable on the internet.
And I don't think players break the law by playing poker. Neither for gambling (which happens in Malta, not US) nor for money laundry. Players have no control how money transactions are implemented by the poker company. If they cash out and get a transactions from "Asian Pacific Network Group" instead of "PokerStars", there's nothing they can do about that.
Surely they should declare their winnings on tax forms - if wins from gambling is taxable.
Whether or not players have a legit claim of their held money, the company is surely going for bankruptcy with the billions of $ of charges. And guess who is served first from the player funds pool... it's certainly not the players.