A lawyer from Toronto named Steven Cohen enjoyed the recreational card game seven-card stud with his friends and family. Following a dream from every poker player that plays the game as a hobby, he decided to take the plunge into world of professional poker. Steven had a high hopes for his career, after all he had left a 200,000 a year job at his law firm.
Hoping to make a half a million within a few years, he read books and attended seminars on bluffing and reading opponents mannerisms. He traveled to tournaments and played online poker for 40 hrs a week, after a few initial wins, he began losing. A year later, Mr. Cohen found himself fed up with professional poker and down 122,000 after his 1st year. He filed a professional and assumed he was in line for deductions from the Canadian Revenue Service.
The CRA however disagreed, they made the case because Mr. Cohen had not even had a one profitable month in his poker career and did not qualify as a poker professional. Mr. Cohen’s main source for poker bankroll was his credit cards, the CRA argued that he did not conduct himself in the nature in which his poker hobby would fall within the definition of a legal business.
Steven Cohen disagreed with the CRA ruling and of course with the judge presiding over his case. Not many Canadians have been able to convince the CRA that are professional poker players rather than hobbyists. There is no written set of rules that qualifies one as a professional and with such a grey area, there may be many cases like Mr. Cohen’s going to the courts in the future.