Requesting taxes withheld from your slot jackpots

Recently I’ve been lucky enough to find big plays and have been getting a lot of handpays (and been running very good in general) I have started requesting that taxes be withheld on my jackpots. The reason I’ve been doing this is because with the larger plays I get some big swings in my bankroll and I like the idea of not having a 20k to 30k tax bill at the end of the year.

I know that the big downside to doing this is not having access to the money and the Feds are holding my money interest free where I could otherwise invest it or put it in the bank and make a couple of points interest off of it until tax time. I am ok with this because again like the idea of not having a huge tax bill at the end of the year or at least having it offset substantially by the withholdings especially if I suddenly start running bad around tax time and my bankroll is depleted.

Was recently thinking though. Are there any other downsides to doing this? For example is it a hassle for the casinos to withhold taxes and will draw attention or could the casinos care less?

Any feedback is much appreciated.

Thank you

Finally something to discuss.

If you had prepared yourself properly before playing high enough action that could potentially result in multiple W2G's, you would never be requesting that casinos withhold anything from your jackpots. You've already gave some of the reasons why it isn't wise, and to most people, those are good enough.

However, the #1 reason not to do that has to do with your ability to manage and/or understand your own finances. If you're hitting these jackpots, it only stands to reason that you put aside a certain % each time to cover possible taxes. Then if you find you don't owe them at year's end, you have a nice pot of extra cash to do something with.

Giving up earned interest doesn't make a lot of sense when working edges of working against casino edges.

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Originally Posted by Rob.Singer

Finally something to discuss.

If you had prepared yourself properly before playing high enough action that could potentially result in multiple W2G's, you would never be requesting that casinos withhold anything from your jackpots. You've already gave some of the reasons why it isn't wise, and to most people, those are good enough.

However, the #1 reason not to do that has to do with your ability to manage and/or understand your own finances. If you're hitting these jackpots, it only stands to reason that you put aside a certain % each time to cover possible taxes. Then if you find you don't owe them at year's end, you have a nice pot of extra cash to do something with.

Giving up earned interest doesn't make a lot of sense when working edges of working against casino edges.

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Thank you for the response. That makes sense. Something I had forgotten about when I posted was I recalled reading somewhere about a person that got on a hot streak and hit a ton of handpays and the person claimed it drew the IRS’s attention that they had all this income without withholding anything and it invited an audit. Don’t know if the story was true or not, but when I read about this it was another motivator for me to withhold taxes if I could keep the IRS happy. I am very new to all this and still kind of figuring out the ropes, so while I understand the downside I figured the safer play was to withhold while I build a bigger bankroll, see if my winnings are sustainable or if I’m just getting lucky and to see what my tax situation looks like when everything is calculated at year end.

Should probably clarify. When I say big plays I mean big for me. My average W2G is about $2000 which I realize now for many of the folks on here is probably not that big. I was thinking big against some of the other players I see in the casinos that will only take plays on a .50 cent bet and won’t even look at other plays. I guess it’s relative lol.

If you are consistently playing and generating W2Gs it's probably not necessary.

But you mentioned seeing what your tax situation looks like when everything is calculated at year end. You should be keeping track of your situation throughout the year to know where you stand, not just from overall W-L but for your tax picture as a whole.

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Originally Posted by pkspins

If you are consistently playing and generating W2Gs it's probably not necessary.

But you mentioned seeing what your tax situation looks like when everything is calculated at year end. You should be keeping track of your situation throughout the year to know where you stand, not just from overall W-L but for your tax

picture as a whole.

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thank you. Good advice. I have been keeping a gambling diary and been intending to put in into excel but a lot of entries so haven’t done yet. I need to get on it.