2010 World Series of Poker Main Event winner Jonathan Duhamel has emerged victorious from a four-year back-taxes battle against the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) over years of poker tournament winnings. As reported by Montreal's La Presse, the CRA will not appeal the June ruling in which his winnings were found to have been achieved by a preponderance of luck rather than skill, and thus not taxable under Canadian law.
La Presse reported on Tuesday that Duhamel's tax attorney had received confirmation from the CRA that the agency would drop the matter, despite having until September 21 to consider filing an appeal. The CRA had sought roughly CAD $1.2 million from Duhamel for his success in two major poker events -- the 2010 WSOP Main Event win, where he collected nearly US $9 million, and the 2015 WSOP High Roller for One Drop, where he earned another $4 million.
However, the two big scores stood in contrast to the rest of his tournament career, where he otherwise posted a net loss of more than a million dollars from 2010 to 2018. Duhamel has dropped off the tournament scene in recent years.
"Mr. Duhamel's poker game activities do not demonstrate an ability to generate profits, [...] the probability of ruin [...] is much greater than 50 %, Mr. Duhamel does not act like a man of Serious affairs as part of his poker game activities, [and he] has not developed any risk management or attenuation system in the context of his poker game activities," wrote Judge Dominique Lafleur in her ruling favoring Duhamel.
