New Canadian Affiliate looking for advice

[WSOPforFREE]

Hi,

I've been playing poker semi-professionally for the past 5 years and am currently working on my first poker affiliate site.

I have some very basic business startup questions, specifically for the Canadian posters on the forum, regarding laws and business registration actions I should complete before going live with my site.

Specifically, do I need to register a business? Should I look to do this overseas? If I simply run a website, receive my affiliate payments to Moneybookers, and pay taxes on annual earning, will that be enough to keep me in the clear.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated. Feel free to PM me if you'd prefer to discuss these things outside of the forum.

Thanks for you help,
Aaron

[pokerprop]

Specifically, do I need to register a business? Should I look to do this overseas? If I simply run a website, receive my affiliate payments to Moneybookers, and pay taxes on annual earning, will that be enough to keep me in the clear.

Very cool country you come from. I am not sure of that game with the sticks and black puck they call hockey, but the word Eh is a pretty cool word imo and no tax on gambling winnings sounds pretty cool to me as well.

To answer some questions. My guess is no to the first two questions you posted, and yes to the long one that follows. Once again i am not Canadian nor qualified to give legal tax advice.

[CK]

If you will be making 30K+ (I believe its that amount) you do need to register a business. I dont have to worry about GST or anything like that because I dont really deal with Canadians, but you will have to register if your income meets the min. tbh better now than later when you make a mess with your taxes - Min cost is like $60 for a sole proprietor and you can do it online.

Overseas account - no thats not necessary

Welcome Aaron

[actyper]

If you are going to be affiliating full time then yes I would recommend you register a business.

[WSOPforFREE]

Thanks for the input guys.

I've been wrestling with the problem of whether or not I'll need to set up the business overseas in a place like Malta, Cyprus, or somewhere in the Caribbean.

I want to get my site up on a fairly tight timetable, and was worried that there can be problems operating this type of business from Canada.

Sounds like I`m just being overly cautious.

Thanks for the advice, though I know it`s not "official" advice.

[NickM]

If you plan on using the domain name wsopforfree.com, don't.

[pokerprop]

Or any website with trademarks involved, except for in the case where permission has been granted; and even when so unless it is convertable down the road don't invest too heavily in a trademarked website with loose permission or even a short term legal contract because there is no guarantee you'll be able to use it long term.

A lot of people get their starts (including myself at one time) using this as a short cut, but in end you'll have much better resale value should you need to exit and much more secure income should you hold, building something special without violating trademarks.

If you do decide to violate trademarks make sure it doesn't involve 2+2 or they'll be chasing you down with a lawsuit guaranteed. Or Harrah's which is very aggressive protecting their trademark, or major sports leagues such as NBA and NFL which likely are competing for world records and will soon be found in Guinness for their amazing amounts of domain disputes.

[WSOPforFREE]

I spoke with Harrah's before choosing this domain name, and they seemed open to the idea, though gave me a couple of limitations.

1. I can't work with any poker sites accepting US players (which seems strange, seeing as all the US sites heavy promote the WSOP by simply adding a disclaimer every time they use their Trademarks). I'm planning to work with iPoker skins and other networks that don't accept US players.

2. I have to get final approval once the site is completed.

That was another reason I thought it might be better to set up the business overseas, as opposed to registering in Canada, as it might be a little harder for them to attack a business registered outside of N. America with an owner who is living at least part-time in Asia.

Thoughts?

[CK]

I spoke with Harrah's before choosing this domain name, and they seemed open to the idea, though gave me a couple of limitations.

1. I can't work with any poker sites accepting US players (which seems strange, seeing as all the US sites heavy promote the WSOP by simply adding a disclaimer every time they use their Trademarks). I'm planning to work with iPoker skins and other networks that don't accept US players.

2. I have to get final approval once the site is completed.

That was another reason I thought it might be better to set up the business overseas, as opposed to registering in Canada, as it might be a little harder for them to attack a business registered outside of N. America with an owner who is living at least part-time in Asia.

Thoughts?

My thoughts - dont try and cheat the system.

[WSOPforFREE]

I agree. That's why I approached Harrah's first.

Obviously I'd much prefer their support than to have to worry about being attacked/chased down with a lawsuit.

It seems as though they will support me, or at least ignore me, as long as I don't work with poker sites which allow US players. Of course nothing is guaranteed without firm agreements in place.

Based on early research I was starting to think that the Canadian system, or at least the Ontario system, doesn't allow local businesses to profit from advertising online gaming sites. I was hoping some of the Canadians on here could advise me whether or not I'm better off setting up the business overseas. I don't think anyone in Canada has been prosecuted for it, but it's such a legal grey area, especially for a "registered" business.

I know there are full-time Canadian poker affiliates who post here and I was hoping for some advise based on their experience.

Again, I'd be happy to continue this discussion via PM if they're more comfortable keeping it off the main forum.