 Every year Russ Fox analyzes how much money WSOP Main Event winners have to give away. Nothing has changed for many years now – the biggest winner is always the American Internal Revenue Service.
This year the Main Event at World Series of Poker attracted 7,874 poker players. Most of them were of course from the USA and they dominated the Main Event.
Russ Fox, who deals in taxes, but also loves poker decided to count how much money poker players will really see.
The tournament was on by John Cynn. The pokerp layer comes from Evanston in Illinois. After 10-hour long heads-up Cynn defeated Tony Miles, to collect $8,800,000. Seems like a lot of money, right? Unfortunately as much as $3,860,183 of that (43,87%) Cynn will have to give to tax office and he will keep only $4,094,676.
It's actually better than before, because changes in the tax law decreased the amount given to the government by almost 3%. Thus Cynn saved $234,493, that a year ago he would have to give away as well.
Tom Miles, who was second, comes from Jacksonville in Florida and won $5,000,000. Local government will ask him to pay in $1,939,341 that is 38,79%.
Third position was Michael Dyer from Houston in Texas. Poker player was the chip leader for al ong time, but then got eliminated in the third spot. Federal tax for him will amunt to $1,449,275 (38,65%). This is actually the lowest rate among the finalists!
Nick Manion got to Main Event via a freeroll – what is more his friends paid for that. He won $2,825,000 and will have to pay three taxes: federal, state and municipal (he lives in Muskegon, Michigan). This means 43,09%, that is about 1.2 million dollars will not go to his pocket.
Joe Cada was 5th, but to cheer himself up he also won… 4th bracelet in The Closer. Cada lives in Shelby Township, Michigan. He will pay 40,59% tax, which means about $872,000.
It's gonna be a bit cheaper for Aram Zobian, who came 6th. He won $1,800,000. He hails from Rhode Island and it will cost him 40,10% tax to collect the money ($721,821).
Alex Lynskey from Melbourne would probably like to be an amateur player. Then he wouldn't pay anything in Australia, but as a pro one and a half millions will go tax office way. American one will gather $450,000. Lynskey in his own country will have to pay additional $216,296.
The lowest tax of all of them will pay Artem Metalidi from Ukraine. Poker player was 8th and won $1,250,000. Linear tax will take away 18%, and there will also be 1,5% army tax. Metalidi will “only” $243,750. Ukraine has signed a contract with the US to avoid double taxation.
Last player analyzed by Russ is French player Antoine Labat. He won one million and it is yet unknown how much tax he will pay in France as the rates have not been established yet, but according to last year's rules it would have to be 43%.
Altogether the nine final players won $28,075,000. Of that U.S. IRS will take $9,811,437. Local taxes kick it up to $10,953,198. Tax offices win the World Series of Poker yet again.
Average tax rate for poker players is 39%. This is more than a year ago when 4 finalists did not pay anything as they came from Great Britain where gamblers don't have to worry about nor pay any taxes.
Here is a table with all winnings together with tax deductions:
Position Prize Amount after tax
1. John Cynn $8,800,000 $4,939,817
2. Tony Miles $5,000,000 $3,060,659
3. Michael Dyer $3,750,000 $2,300,725
4. Nicolas Manion $2,825,000 $1,607,677
5. Joe Cada $2,150,000 $1,277,365
6. Aram Zobian $1,800,000 $1,078,179
8. Artem Metalidi $1,250,000 $1,006,250
7. Alex Lynskey $1,500,000 $833,704
9. Antoine Labat $1,000,000 $567,426
Altogether $28.075.000 $16.871.802
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Every year Russ Fox analyzes how much money WSOP Main Event winners have to give away. Nothing has changed for many years now – the biggest winner is always the American Internal Revenue Service.
