Posted on 10/02/2012 6:15:23 AM PDT by George from New England
My 25 year son was making a nice living playing online poker from the home in Florida that he owns. Then on April 15, 2011, Eric Holder shut the online poker activity within the U.S. Many in my sons's field are traveling to Rosario, Mexico (20 minutes south of Tijuana), opening bank accounts in Mexico and paying inexpensive rate to live there and play online for weeks at a time. All to get past the Holder U.S. blockage.
The rates are so low there right now because the tourism is virtually dried up from high crime and bad press. I pointed out to him the if occupancies are at 10% then the ratio of criminals to visitor will be 10 times what it used to be. I also point out that drugs and money is the target of the criminal element and that poker players can be a target just cause of the monies aspect.
I wonder how many Americans are now at risk cause of this Obama/Holder shutdown in the U.S.
Any other arguments or stories that Freepers can share here would be appreciated.
Ensenada is not far from Rosarito Beach.
Getting money to Mexico is very very easy. Getting money out is a royal pain. Worse, he risks that same bank ruining his reputation on the online sites as wire transfers are lost, delayed, or rescinded if he fails to pay off the right people.
He doesn’t have to bank in Mexico if he lives there, of course - there’s other offshore banking options, but as another poster pointed out, his foreign earnings will be taxed at US rates and have extremely stringent reporting requirements. I’m not completely sure, but I recall reading on one of the poker forums that the IRS does not permit deducting foreign gambling losses on tax forms, only wins are recorded, so it can turn very bad very quickly.
http://www.cardschat.com/legal-poker-sites.php
I am sure there are other alternatives out there if you just look.
When I find sites on Google then I google something like “such and such site is a rip-off”, or it sucks and see what you get.
Google pictures if the decapitated bodies from the Mexican drug wars and show them to him.
” . . . 25 year old . . .”
The clay hardened long ago.
Bingo, and make sure it covers foreign countries, too. Most of us were that age of “invincibility”. But moving just south of the border is quite insane in these times. He may need to visit gamblers anonymous.
He is 25 - an adult. You can tell him your wishes. You can tell him that it will cause you to worry. You can tell him about the violence. You can only inform him.
But he is an adult - stop helicoptering and let him make decisions and deal with the consequences of those decisions.
The Republicans controlled both the House and Senate in 2006.
As a result of the November, 2006 mid-term elections, the democrats won control of both the House and Senate, and the new democrat-controlled House and Senate were seated in January, 2007.
I agree with the other posters who suggested The Bahamas, a Caribbean island, or Costa Rica as an alternative to Mexico.
Have him watch “Borderland” on Netflix.
I second that. And while I have no experience with the town/city mentioned, I'll add I've been in & out of Mexico with little problem. So don't listen to all the gnashing of teeth about all of Mexico being an unsafe place.
Every country has places to avoid, just learn where they are.
They decided to go to Mexico to see relatives. Said it was safe because they were south of all the drug activities. They were driving a relative's car when a large dump truck pushed them off the road and their car hit a brick fence and a couple of trees.
Mom had a broken leg and broken arms. Gina's sister had broken ribs, punctured lung, broken arms and other internal injuries as a result of the accident.
They were taken to a local doc-in-the-box and patched up as well as the facility would allow. Family members came and paid the bill and were trying to get them back to the US for surgery which both of them needed.
The clinic would not release them unless they paid an additional $6,000. Their bill had been settled in full, but they would not let them leave without the "ransom" money. Family members called the local police who showed up and locked them in one of the clinic rooms and told the family members they would now have to come up with $18,000 to allow these ladies to leave. Family and extended family could only come up with about $5,000 after several days. Gina's sister was getting worse by the hour and they were afraid she would die so the kidnappers released they for the $5,000 if they would sign a release absolving the clinic and police of any wrong doing.
The family members had to drive them to the border where ambulances were waiting to fly them to Houston for medical care. This has been a couple of years ago and neither woman has fully recovered from the ordeal. These ladies were Mexican citizens living in the US. What do you think would have happened to them had they been American citizens?
Avoid Mexico at all costs!!!
Slightly incorrect. There is no Federal law banning Americans from playing online poker. What Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (or UIGEA) did was make it illegal for banks and other financial institutions to tranfer money to and from online gambling sites. Actually the case against 2 of the 3 sites has pretty much fallen apart. Full Tilt is still in trouble, but for stealing their customers’ money from their supposedly segregated accounts. Much like John Corzine and MF Global.
His problem is not Mexico, it is gambling.
In this case, I highly recommend you contact Gamblers Anonymous, identify yourself as his father, give them the whole story, and ask for their advice on what to do.
http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/ga/
My guess is that they will suggest you bring him to a GA meeting, and in that he probably won’t want to go, you will have to be gently crafty about it.
If he is adamant about not meeting them, invite some GA people to your home to “get them into his space”, even if they are there to “just talk with you.”
There’s some psychology here. People dislike others talking about them “behind their back”, about a problem they have, even if they are in denial about it. But because the GA people are “talking to you”, he cannot order them away. It also shows that you know he has a problem, which also tends to bring the issue to the fore.
And there’s a simple solution for him. If he talks with them and goes to meetings, then you will no longer invite them into “his space”.
That was my first thought exactly. Sounds like the only real value he received growing up is that making money justifies just about anything.
Even if he doesn't go to Mexico, the odds are that at some point he will lose his house and wind up back in Mom and Dad's basement.
At the age of 25 the kid is an adult and has to personally accept the consequences of his actions. Protecting him from those consequences only prolongs the agony of all involved. And it keeps the kid from growing up.
If you lose money it’s an addiction. If you win it’s a profession. ;~)
Tombstone:
Wyatt: Didn’t you always say gambling’s an honest trade?
Doc: I said poker’s an honest trade. Only suckers buck the tiger. The odds are all with the house.
Your attitude is correct.
Wild horses couldn’t drag me to Mexico.
Don’t believe everything you read. The crime is in small pockets and largely internecine. Stay away from the drug culture (mostly around San Pedro Sula — a thoroughfare), and you’e fine. I know; I live there six months a year.
Tell him to do a search on ‘nick berg beheading’. Much like your son, Berg thought he could travel all around Iraq and he literally lost his head for his foolish beliefs.
If your son travels around Mexico and gets in a ‘wrong place/wrong time’ scenario...well, the drug cartels also somtimes dismember their victims to either send a message to their rivals and the locals or to prevent identificaion of the remains.
There is a steady stream of Mexicans sneeking into the US for a better life and your son thinks that his better life is in Mexico, playing poker.
Makes sense to me.
I suspect the same is also true of Mexico, but which people have no trouble bashing as an entity. Mexico is a much larger country and therefore no doubt easier to maintain a distance from the “bad” areas.
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