Gex - do you have any knowledge of whether or not the ultimate winner is affiliated with Rick? The main accusations here are that (a) the wheel was rigged, and/or that (b) Richard essentially won the wheel. You explained the way the wheel works, but can you address the huge accusations made? You don't 'owe' this to me or anyone else, but I am very curious to hear your input on this.
Yeah for sure, i'll answer anyones questions as long as they're in good taste.
a) I livestream the raffle with a subscription paid randomizer service, Random.org. Everything is time stamped and a verification code is given, which will match the livestream saved on Youtube (used to be livestream.com, but they started charging $500/year). I've done hundreds and hundreds of streams, and the procedure is the same for every wheel. The $45 Super Metroid I livestreamed a few nights ago had the exact same routine as the $65,000 wheel did. I'm not a super tech guy, so someone could come at us saying there's some extremely complicated and intricate way to rig our wheels. I have problems even taking virus's off my comp, not that that's relevant. But anyone can watch the hundreds of livestreams on my Youtube and judge the congruency for themselves.
b) Nick Tamburri (OP) just said Steve was a fake account (the irnoy here is intense). We talked to Steve and he OK'd us to share his store, anyone can stop in and view the winnings for themselves. All his contact info is there too.
I never addressed these logistics because how totally totally blind they are, I mean Nick Tamburri (OP) isn't even alowed to have a profile on NA anymore lol. Our raffle happened almost 2 weeks ago. If there was any legitimate issue, i'm sure it would have been brough up by now. Not by a now confirmed fake account 2 weeks later. Why not use his real account to post if this information was so groundbreaking.
I don’t know this Richard guy but I do know Steve a little bit. For what it’s worth, he’s a straight shooter. I can’t see him being involved in anything underhanded.
This win is gonna do a lot of good for him and his family. I’m happy for the guy.
This win is gonna do a lot of good for him and his family.
Seems like it is going to be a major tax headache, though at least he runs a store, so he can pretty readily liquidate enough of that collection to pay the IRS their due.
Ok sorry - I didn't intend to deviate or argue about it, but just so no one gets confused. There is not a flat tax on gambling income. There are certain requirements for how much withholding that companies have to withhold from certain winnings, but the income on a return is taxed at the individual's marginal tax rate. I bring up this distinction because it is confusing for people and sometimes they think they are golden and then they get a big tax bill. It is just like your wages where they withhold X% but your actual tax could be different.
based on the links above, it READS LIKE "it depends" (in terms of whether he gets flat taxed, or whether it's progressive) -- but on a win like this, and especially complicated by the fact that the first prize he won rolled into entries into the second prize, I can imagine he'd want a CPA if he wanted to do it right.
I'm sure no one really cares much about this anyway, but that particular site is misusing the word 'taxed' with the withholding requirements. Gambling income is reported as other income on the return and taxed at your marginal tax rate unless you are a professional gambler or a few other strange scenarios. People will often have 25% withheld from their winnings due to W-2G requirements, but that is irrelevant to your actual tax rate on gambling income. Again, I'm not trying to argue about it here but I just want to clarify because I don't want to see someone in the position I've seen where they are in the 39.6% tax bracket but thought everything was fine and dandy because they had 25% withholding on their gambling income.
I'm sure no one really cares much about this anyway, but that particular site is misusing the word 'taxed' with the withholding requirements. Gambling income is reported as other income on the return and taxed at your marginal tax rate unless you are a professional gambler or a few other strange scenarios. People will often have 25% withheld from their winnings due to W-2G requirements, but that is irrelevant to your actual tax rate on gambling income. Again, I'm not trying to argue about it here but I just want to clarify because I don't want to see someone in the position I've seen where they are in the 39.6% tax bracket but thought everything was fine and dandy because they had 25% withholding on their gambling income.
If there is an error in the link, then I defer to your judgment
I don't see what the original poster is complaining about? He bet money into an illegal non regulated lottery wheel to win a full nes set and lost, well, no shit. Then the OP made a separate account to complain here violating the terms of NA and getting banned. You learned a life lesson for a reasonable price, some people waste their entire life savings before coming to the realization that gambling is usually fixed with the odds favoring the house.
I've never participated in a gaming raffle, but I do frequently participate in raffles in another hobby. We take safeguards to make sure no one is screwed over, using actual events to determine winners. I.e. an item is worth $170ish, the person would sell 17 spots for $10 each 1-17 and the winner would be determined via the next Florida Lucky Money drawing. If a random number generator is used, it has to be done via Facebook Live. We've had no issues in the few groups I'm in for this hobby using these methods.
In similar groups as well and I like this. Numbers based on lottery so there is no chance for someone to get scammed. Wish we could do something like this on NA.
All this talk about taxes makes me laugh. None of these wheels pay any taxes nor do the winners. That's why they require friends and family payments or recruit people to use their paypal accounts to take payments for them until they get close to there 20k limit before paypal sends them tax forms on their transactions (I'm aware all income, regardless of amount is supposed to be reported). What I find crazy is how paypal doesn't notice an account taking in 20-30 grand in friends and family payments from a zillion different paypal address and not looking into it or how a 65k wheel is ran illegally and it hasnt sparked any law enforcement action yet. I mean just that wheel page mentioned in the OP, with the NES set and the NWC, has propably brought well over a 100 grand this year in payments.
What I find crazy is how paypal doesn't notice an account taking in 20-30 grand in friends and family payments from a zillion different paypal address and not looking into it or how a 65k wheel is ran illegally and it hasnt sparked any law enforcement action yet. I mean just that wheel page mentioned in the OP, with the NES set and the NWC, has propably brought well over a 100 grand this year in payments.
Dude. Did you see Sicaro, the scene where they go into the bank and talk to the manager that's been watching someone come in and deposit $9000 every day for years to overpay a loan and get a positive balance that never shows up anywhere? They know, they just don't say anything because $$$.
What I find crazy is how paypal doesn't notice an account taking in 20-30 grand in friends and family payments from a zillion different paypal address and not looking into it or how a 65k wheel is ran illegally and it hasnt sparked any law enforcement action yet. I mean just that wheel page mentioned in the OP, with the NES set and the NWC, has propably brought well over a 100 grand this year in payments.
I'm sure they do notice, and it may just be a matter of time before they start sending out tax forms based on those numbers.
Nothing prevents them from doing so, if they wanted to.
If you combine the total amount of money that these "game wheels" have scammed, I could believe that in a dollar amount, it probably is (although the Aero Fighters 3 scam ranks up there too).
It's basically free money, and there are apparently enough dumb marks showing up in this hobby on a daily basis to sustain it. You just need to throw away your morals and conscience and jump in the game, that doesn't seem to be a big stretch for a lot of the scumbags that populate this hobby either.
If you combine the total amount of money that these "game wheels" have scammed, I could believe that in a dollar amount, it probably is (although the Aero Fighters 3 scam ranks up there too).
It's basically free money, and there are apparently enough dumb marks showing up in this hobby on a daily basis to sustain it. You just need to throw away your morals and conscience and jump in the game, that doesn't seem to be a big stretch for a lot of the scumbags that populate this hobby either.
Throw in the likely tax evasion, and the sum total of the game wheels wins easily.
What I find crazy is how paypal doesn't notice an account taking in 20-30 grand in friends and family payments from a zillion different paypal address and not looking into it or how a 65k wheel is ran illegally and it hasnt sparked any law enforcement action yet. I mean just that wheel page mentioned in the OP, with the NES set and the NWC, has propably brought well over a 100 grand this year in payments.
Dude. Did you see Sicaro, the scene where they go into the bank and talk to the manager that's been watching someone come in and deposit $9000 every day for years to overpay a loan and get a positive balance that never shows up anywhere? They know, they just don't say anything because $$$.
Id guess paypal wants their fees from all the F&F payments they are recieving though. It just a way for them to curcomvent the fee system and tax burden. I bet the government would love to have there taxes also.
So the "winner" of this game wheel also had to win another game wheel to get spots in the final wheel? Let me just get this straight, he won a $6,500 game wheel first, then won a $65,000 game wheel right after that? And I'm suppose to believe that this entire thing is legit? Are people really this fucking stupid to not call bullshit on that?
But wait guys, I have it on good authority that this is totally legit, an NA member that also helped run the wheel said so.
Im pretty sure everyone realizes this is a bullshit scam except for people involved.
I assume the folks running it know its a scam, just lying about it.
These two statements sum up pretty much everything I thought.
Originally posted by: Krunch
Originally posted by: arch_8ngel
Are we witnessing some kind of polite Canadian gang battle between territories?
Hahahah omg now that's funny. Now we just need the BC perspective
Can't we just auto-lock any threads about scam wheels from now on?
This. Game wheel threads should be an auto-lock & mod-warning offense. Throw a sticky thread on Collector's Corner about how they are all a rip-off. Wheel discussions contribute nothing of worth to NA.
Comments
lol
Gex - do you have any knowledge of whether or not the ultimate winner is affiliated with Rick? The main accusations here are that (a) the wheel was rigged, and/or that (b) Richard essentially won the wheel. You explained the way the wheel works, but can you address the huge accusations made? You don't 'owe' this to me or anyone else, but I am very curious to hear your input on this.
Yeah for sure, i'll answer anyones questions as long as they're in good taste.
a) I livestream the raffle with a subscription paid randomizer service, Random.org. Everything is time stamped and a verification code is given, which will match the livestream saved on Youtube (used to be livestream.com, but they started charging $500/year). I've done hundreds and hundreds of streams, and the procedure is the same for every wheel. The $45 Super Metroid I livestreamed a few nights ago had the exact same routine as the $65,000 wheel did. I'm not a super tech guy, so someone could come at us saying there's some extremely complicated and intricate way to rig our wheels. I have problems even taking virus's off my comp, not that that's relevant. But anyone can watch the hundreds of livestreams on my Youtube and judge the congruency for themselves.
b) Nick Tamburri (OP) just said Steve was a fake account (the irnoy here is intense). We talked to Steve and he OK'd us to share his store, anyone can stop in and view the winnings for themselves. All his contact info is there too.
http://www.smalltownvideogames.net/
I never addressed these logistics because how totally totally blind they are, I mean Nick Tamburri (OP) isn't even alowed to have a profile on NA anymore lol. Our raffle happened almost 2 weeks ago. If there was any legitimate issue, i'm sure it would have been brough up by now. Not by a now confirmed fake account 2 weeks later. Why not use his real account to post if this information was so groundbreaking.
I don’t know this Richard guy but I do know Steve a little bit. For what it’s worth, he’s a straight shooter. I can’t see him being involved in anything underhanded.
This win is gonna do a lot of good for him and his family. I’m happy for the guy.
Wow... that blew up in the OP's face...
It sure did. lol
This win is gonna do a lot of good for him and his family.
Seems like it is going to be a major tax headache, though at least he runs a store, so he can pretty readily liquidate enough of that collection to pay the IRS their due.
It isn't a flat 25% rate, but I imagine it will be close to that for him.
^ hahahahha, you think people actually report their winnings?
It isn't a flat 25% rate, but I imagine it will be close to that for him.
https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/income-and-investments/how-are-gambling-winnings-taxed-8891/
https://www.efile.com/taxable-gambling-winnings-income-taxes/
I'd dig it up, but I'm feeling lazy. (To be fair, it's eight in the morning here. )
I'm sure no one really cares much about this anyway, but that particular site is misusing the word 'taxed' with the withholding requirements. Gambling income is reported as other income on the return and taxed at your marginal tax rate unless you are a professional gambler or a few other strange scenarios. People will often have 25% withheld from their winnings due to W-2G requirements, but that is irrelevant to your actual tax rate on gambling income. Again, I'm not trying to argue about it here but I just want to clarify because I don't want to see someone in the position I've seen where they are in the 39.6% tax bracket but thought everything was fine and dandy because they had 25% withholding on their gambling income.
If there is an error in the link, then I defer to your judgment
We had this discussion in the other thread.
It's always fun to have a new discussion about what legal mistakes are being made.
I've never participated in a gaming raffle, but I do frequently participate in raffles in another hobby. We take safeguards to make sure no one is screwed over, using actual events to determine winners. I.e. an item is worth $170ish, the person would sell 17 spots for $10 each 1-17 and the winner would be determined via the next Florida Lucky Money drawing. If a random number generator is used, it has to be done via Facebook Live. We've had no issues in the few groups I'm in for this hobby using these methods.
In similar groups as well and I like this. Numbers based on lottery so there is no chance for someone to get scammed. Wish we could do something like this on NA.
What I find crazy is how paypal doesn't notice an account taking in 20-30 grand in friends and family payments from a zillion different paypal address and not looking into it or how a 65k wheel is ran illegally and it hasnt sparked any law enforcement action yet. I mean just that wheel page mentioned in the OP, with the NES set and the NWC, has propably brought well over a 100 grand this year in payments.
Dude. Did you see Sicaro, the scene where they go into the bank and talk to the manager that's been watching someone come in and deposit $9000 every day for years to overpay a loan and get a positive balance that never shows up anywhere? They know, they just don't say anything because $$$.
What I find crazy is how paypal doesn't notice an account taking in 20-30 grand in friends and family payments from a zillion different paypal address and not looking into it or how a 65k wheel is ran illegally and it hasnt sparked any law enforcement action yet. I mean just that wheel page mentioned in the OP, with the NES set and the NWC, has propably brought well over a 100 grand this year in payments.
I'm sure they do notice, and it may just be a matter of time before they start sending out tax forms based on those numbers.
Nothing prevents them from doing so, if they wanted to.
outside of the time-suck that is this thread: what is really the biggest scam in retro gaming?
megaman 6? LE reproductions? the FCEUX color palette?
It's basically free money, and there are apparently enough dumb marks showing up in this hobby on a daily basis to sustain it. You just need to throw away your morals and conscience and jump in the game, that doesn't seem to be a big stretch for a lot of the scumbags that populate this hobby either.
outside of the time-suck that is this thread: what is really the biggest scam in retro gaming?
If you combine the total amount of money that these "game wheels" have scammed, I could believe that in a dollar amount, it probably is (although the Aero Fighters 3 scam ranks up there too).
It's basically free money, and there are apparently enough dumb marks showing up in this hobby on a daily basis to sustain it. You just need to throw away your morals and conscience and jump in the game, that doesn't seem to be a big stretch for a lot of the scumbags that populate this hobby either.
Throw in the likely tax evasion, and the sum total of the game wheels wins easily.
What I find crazy is how paypal doesn't notice an account taking in 20-30 grand in friends and family payments from a zillion different paypal address and not looking into it or how a 65k wheel is ran illegally and it hasnt sparked any law enforcement action yet. I mean just that wheel page mentioned in the OP, with the NES set and the NWC, has propably brought well over a 100 grand this year in payments.
Dude. Did you see Sicaro, the scene where they go into the bank and talk to the manager that's been watching someone come in and deposit $9000 every day for years to overpay a loan and get a positive balance that never shows up anywhere? They know, they just don't say anything because $$$.
Id guess paypal wants their fees from all the F&F payments they are recieving though. It just a way for them to curcomvent the fee system and tax burden. I bet the government would love to have there taxes also.
So the "winner" of this game wheel also had to win another game wheel to get spots in the final wheel? Let me just get this straight, he won a $6,500 game wheel first, then won a $65,000 game wheel right after that? And I'm suppose to believe that this entire thing is legit? Are people really this fucking stupid to not call bullshit on that?
But wait guys, I have it on good authority that this is totally legit, an NA member that also helped run the wheel said so.
Im pretty sure everyone realizes this is a bullshit scam except for people involved.
I assume the folks running it know its a scam, just lying about it.
These two statements sum up pretty much everything I thought.
Are we witnessing some kind of polite Canadian gang battle between territories?
Hahahah omg now that's funny. Now we just need the BC perspective
I already posted
Can't we just auto-lock any threads about scam wheels from now on?
This. Game wheel threads should be an auto-lock & mod-warning offense. Throw a sticky thread on Collector's Corner about how they are all a rip-off. Wheel discussions contribute nothing of worth to NA.