And the Biggest Winner of the WSOP Main Event Is -- the IRS!

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can rub its hands in satisfaction, as the November Nine members have to put down a combined total of $9.6 million from their winnings in taxes.

Members of this year’s WSOP Main Event nine-handed Final Table shared a prize pool of $25,932,167. $8,359,531 of this went to Ryan Riess, before taxes… The US player, however, has to pay a considerable part of it as tax, as do most of his fellow November Nine players.

In the United States, revenues from gambling are tax-free for neither recreational nor professional players, but some of them have additional obligations as well. Riess is a professional player, therefore he has to pay federal taxes and self-employment taxes as well, totalling at $3,478,818, or 42% of his total winnings.

Runner-up Jay Farber is in a somewhat more favourable situation; being a recreational player, he does not have a self-employment tax. He still has to pay 39% of his total winnings of $5,174,357, or $2,026,527. Third finisher Amir Lehavot also resides in the US and pays the same 42% as Riess, or $1,549,200 of his $3,727,823 prize money.

If we take post-tax revenues into consideration, Lehavot is, in fact, only the fourth biggest winner of the Final Table, as Sylvain Loosli is able to keep all of his $2,792,533 for his fourth finish. Loosli is French but is residing in London, where incomes from gambling are tax-free, regardless of the player being professional or recreational. Guess what motivates players to move to the UK. If Loosli had remained in France, he would have been one of the biggest “tax-losers” of the finale, suffering a 49% tax rate.

Of the US players, JC Tran has to pay proportionately the most; living in Sacramento, he also owes the state of California its due, in addition to the federal and self-employment taxes, for a total of $1,001,977 or 48% of his winnings.

Sixth finisher Marc-Etienee McLaughlin fares the worst in comparison; in addition to paying the country as well as the state he lives in, an additional 30% goes to the US as source tax. Of his $1,601,024 prize money, he gets to keep $808,089.

The tax agreement between the USA and the Netherlands frees Michiel Brummelhuis from having to pay in the US and the Dutch authorities expect 29% of his winnings, or $355,353 from the $1,225,356 he won.

David Benefield is living in New York and is currently a college student, which means he escapes the self-employment tax. He does have to pay federal and state taxes, however, a total of $437,201 from his $944,650.

Mark Newhouse resides in Los Angeles and he is a professional player. As being eliminated from the November finale in 9th place, he did not increase his previous winnings. According to Taxabletalk, he is due to pay 44%.

Take a look at the charts below. You will see that the actual biggest winner of the WSOP Main Event is the IRS, with a total of $8,626,311 in revenues from the US and Canadian players.