18/01/2011, Online poker

The Swedish high stakes player Isildur1, who recently unveiled his true identity, could face a hefty tax bill from the Swedish government. Viktor Blom won millions of dollars by taking part in all ten of the largest pots in online poker history.

Since he unveiled his identity, the Swedish authorities are now trying to catch up with all of his online poker activities.
According to the financial newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Blom played for around $4.5 billion on Full Tilt Poker and he could end up owing nearly $149 million in Swedish taxes.

Isildur1 began playing poker when he was only 14. He became famous for his aggressive style and for winning and losing millions in online tournaments. He confessed that by the age of 18, he was playing poker 15 hours a day and he made $2 million in only three weeks of game.

Swedish poker pros do not pay tax unless the games they play are outside the EU, in which case they face a 30% tax rate on each winning pot. A spokesperson from the Swedish Tax Authority told Dagens Industri that he believes Full Tilt Poker was considered to be outside the EU and commented on the matter:

“Internet poker is something we`re looking in to and I know this poker player, but I can`t comment on whether we`ve opened the case.”

Martin de Knijff and Daniel Larsson are two Swedish poker pros who received unexpected tax bills of $1,476,015 and $147,601 from Skatteverket.