Locals Casinos Free Play Strategy -- do you have one?

[arcimede$]

Da plane ... da plane ...

[Alan Mendelson]

Well, Rob, it seems that your system is not as profitable as you led us to believe it is. Or else you're not much of a businessman losing a million dollars with other parts of your gambling business. You just lost a lot of credibility. You just told us the whole thing is nothing more than a wash.

[Rob.Singer]

Well, Rob, it seems that your system is not as profitable as you led us to believe it is. Or else you're not much of a businessman losing a million dollars with other parts of your gambling business. You just lost a lot of credibility. You just told us the whole thing is nothing more than a wash.

Is this more of your reading comprehension problems? Losing a million dollars in a business? Here's the first hint: I bought my stored Corvette and this RV with WINNINGS--not washed winnings Are you sure you know all the ins & outs of how to file as a business when the income is from gambling? I'll have to leave it to you to try and figure this out, but I'll give you a hint: I've netted a profit of 5 figures in each of the years I've been OUT of the "vp business". In each of those years, I've paid no income taxes on gambling winnings. How did I do it? How does GE get out of paying taxes on billions of dollars of income each year? You really have no clue on any of this? Really??

The liberal media.....

Wait a minute--I think I just spotted your confusion. The payment I made for $675 was from a 2007 audit, and the check I received for $800+ was from a 2010 audit. You probably thought they were filing numbers. Or, you purposely took the "mitigating expenses" part on its own, ignoring the "very creative" part. Either way, if you become a vp pro if & when you learn the game better someday, see me if you want to learn the legal tax loopholes too. Then think of all the money you could just give away to the 51%ers because you feel the need to be taking care of them since they are "our own".

[redietz]

I believe Rob on this, and I'm also relatively certain Scott and Dancer and so on are all able to balance out the vast majority of what they've won. Way back when, as when Rob was making his cash, you could also average out your earnings over five years, so a losing AP year by Rob would have greatly aided his tax relief the following four years.

I don't think Google and Apple lost much credibility because they failed to pay taxes.

[Alan Mendelson]

Hold it right there Rob. You said you offset your casino winnings with other parts of your casino business losses and expenses. Is the Corvette a business expense? Is the RV a casino business expense?

Let's start over: you said you had profits of $960,000 playing video poker but didn't pay taxes? What losses (expenses) did you have a professional gambler so you didn't have to pay taxes on those profits?

Income averaging went out back in the 1980s.

[redietz]

You're right on the income averaging dates, Alan. God, I'm old.

[arcimede$]

Singer made a big whoops. Notice how he can't specify anything where he can actually deduct anywhere close to a million dollars. Anyone familiar with the tax code knows he is lying. This is what happens when a person tries to pile lies on top of lies. It eventually comes back full circle.

Singer never paid taxes on a million dollars simply because he never made a million dollars.

[redietz]

I think this is the topic where Fezzik overstepped against Rob and made a personal wager. It reminds me of the line from Guys and Dolls, "If someone tells you the Jack of Spades will leap out of a sealed deck of cards and spit cider in your ear, do not bet him, my son."

[Alan Mendelson]

I still don't doubt that Rob won nearly a million dollars playing video poker but now I have to ask, how did he manage to offset the wins so he didn't have to pay any taxes on it? Travel, meals, accounting fees, books, software, computers, and other usual business expenses can only add up to a reasonable amount. Did he really have expenses that were enough to offset $960,000 of net profits playing the games?

Inquiring mind wants to know.

By the way I just returned from an "all nighter at Rincon." I didn't expect it to run all night, but it did. I had $300 of free play -- that's it -- $300. I left about 8:30 this morning with $2105. Hit quad Aces three times, including once at 25-cent Shockwave. Interesting game, and I had to try it.

This brings my total for the last four trips to $6203 less about $260 of expenses including gas and food. But since I'm not a professional gambler like Rob Singer I won't be able to deduct my expenses against my winnings.

The bad news came in my mailbox this morning. My offers for August at Rincon are terrible. The weekly money and some of the special daily free play offers are so low it may not make sense for me to get in the car. The August offers I believe are based on June play when I didn't play much at all. My bounce back money is only $295 and my weekly free play is only $115. So I don't think I will be going to Rincon much in August.

My best day to go might be on Tuesdays when I can combine a daily $225 free play offer with my weekly $115 offer for a combined total of $340. And on the first Tuesday of August I can add in my one time monthly bounce back of $295 for a grand total of $635.

[redietz]

Sounds like Tuesday is the ticket.

Alan, if 80% of your website visitors check the Las Vegas forum, can't you just deduct all expenses as business expenses? You're conducting research, after all. Plus you can't make dining recommendations and all that without similar research. You're not gambling professionally; you're conducting research.

[Alan Mendelson]

Alan, if 80% of your website visitors check the Las Vegas forum, can't you just deduct all expenses as business expenses? You're conducting research, after all. Plus you can't make dining recommendations and all that without similar research. You're not gambling professionally; you're conducting research.

Yes, I deduct business expenses for this business -- both my website and weekly TV show and Infomercials. We do a lot of travelling. We keep track of miles driven, maintenance, repairs, purchase of equipment, computer gear, software, cameras, editing expenses, closed-captioning expenses, cost of air time, charges from sub-contractors... but I still pay income taxes each year.

The issue Rob Singer has presented us with, if I understand it accurately, is that he has told us that he has a net win (profit) of $960,000 over ten years playing video poker, yet he has enough expenses as a professional gambler that he had zero income tax liability on that income of nearly one-million dollars. Wow! I'd like to know what he wrote off?

He mentioned a Corvette and an RV. I was thinking about that. Didn't he buy the RV recently after his professional career was over so he couldn't have used it to offset the taxable winnings from years earlier. Was the RV 100% used for business? Was the Corvette? I have a Mercedes and I write off the miles used for business trips such as driving to shoots or visiting clients -- but that is only a percentage of my personal use.

I think Rob wrote the wrong book. Instead of a book about his special plays and video poker strategies, he should have written a book about his Income Tax "special plays" and tax strategies!!

[Alan Mendelson]

Sounds like Tuesday is the ticket.

Actually, I just discovered it might be "Monday." Monday has a "mystery free play" of either $300, $400 or $500 plus I would be able to also use my $115 of weekly free play also, giving me a minimum of $415, The problem with "Monday" is that I am usually home at 10pm to watch "Under The Dome" on CBS. Last night, I had it recorded for me. You should know that I am the last person on earth without a DVR or VCR.

[arcimede$]

When I collect my free play I go late at night on the last night of the weekly freeplay. I collect it and then wait around until the next weeks freeplay is loaded ... takes about 20 minutes after midnight. I then collect that freeplay as well. One trip, two weeks freeplay.

[regnis]

Alan-keep in mind that many people mistakenly (or maybe intentionally) only declare their "signers", which makes it much easier to offset with expenses and losses. And sometimes those losses may be exagerated or imagined as well. Now I'm not suggesting that Rob or anyone else here is doing that, and I don't know how much of his million was "signers", but people do get creative with gambling and taxes.

I myself have boxes with every losing ticket for 7 years from horse racing, and a written record of every bet. The IRS does spot check it on audit. I have had clients lose on audit because their losing tickets weren't sequential, or had too many different horses in any one race, or had foot prints on them (an indication they picked them off the floor).

[Alan Mendelson]

When I collect my free play I go late at night on the last night of the weekly freeplay. I collect it and then wait around until the next weeks freeplay is loaded ... takes about 20 minutes after midnight. I then collect that freeplay as well. One trip, two weeks freeplay.

This is what I used to do... but then Rincon wised up. Now, the daily free play offers can only be redeemed between 8-am and midnight which kills the strategy of showing up at 11-PMish and playing one day's offer and then playing the next day's or week's offer after midnight.

[Alan Mendelson]

or had foot prints on them (an indication they picked them off the floor).

This one made me smile. My father, who was an attorney, told me about this one when I was a kid.

[regnis]

It is very true. The IRS learned years ago to look for the footprints or dirt on the tickets. I've also had people at the track who know I save every ticket hand me a handful of tickets thinking they are helping me. I read them the riot act because it can only do harm. My written records would not match my tickets, and the sequence would be off.

[Dan Druff]

I still don't doubt that Rob won nearly a million dollars playing video poker but now I have to ask, how did he manage to offset the wins so he didn't have to pay any taxes on it? Travel, meals, accounting fees, books, software, computers, and other usual business expenses can only add up to a reasonable amount. Did he really have expenses that were enough to offset $960,000 of net profits playing the games?

Inquiring mind wants to know.

By the way I just returned from an "all nighter at Rincon." I didn't expect it to run all night, but it did. I had $300 of free play -- that's it -- $300. I left about 8:30 this morning with $2105. Hit quad Aces three times, including once at 25-cent Shockwave. Interesting game, and I had to try it.

This brings my total for the last four trips to $6203 less about $260 of expenses including gas and food. But since I'm not a professional gambler like Rob Singer I won't be able to deduct my expenses against my winnings.

The bad news came in my mailbox this morning. My offers for August at Rincon are terrible. The weekly money and some of the special daily free play offers are so low it may not make sense for me to get in the car. The August offers I believe are based on June play when I didn't play much at all. My bounce back money is only $295 and my weekly free play is only $115. So I don't think I will be going to Rincon much in August.

My best day to go might be on Tuesdays when I can combine a daily $225 free play offer with my weekly $115 offer for a combined total of $340. And on the first Tuesday of August I can add in my one time monthly bounce back of $295 for a grand total of $635.

Very interesting about your reduced offers.

I think Caesar's is finally realizing that they are over-comping certain low-value players (such as smart video poker players) and have scaled back their freeplay in recent months.

I was consistently receiving $300-ish offers for quite some time.

Starting September, my offers were a laughable $50. Some were for shopping, some for free play, but all $50.

My October offers are also $50.

I have some decent ones in August ($300-$500), but it looks like my days of milking Caesar's for freeplay are over.

[Alan Mendelson]

The offers I get from Rincon in San Diego are independent to what I get from Caesars in Vegas.

Caesars slashed my offers about six months ago. I used to get offers (shopping, free play) valued at $2500 and they were cut to $850 because I don't go to Vegas that much, and do most of my play at Rincon. Keep in mind that my tier score is now above 520,000 and my play at Caesars probably only represents about 20,000 tier points.

Because of a trip back in March where I had a lot of play (also hit a $20K royal and still had a big profit), my offers have been upped to $1,000 which isn't saying much.

At Rincon I go a lot but I am not a high roller. My budget is fairly limited and I happen to know that at Rincon my offers are low because I play 8/5 Aces and Faces (a full pay game) while players who play 8/5 Double Double Bonus get substantially better offers than I get.

[redietz]

If anyone's interested in my opinion, I'm relatively certain Rob could manage what he claimed, especially in the historical time frame in which he made most of his money. Regnis appears to be familiar with the horse racing end of this. The IMF team was not required. Now back to your regularly scheduled broadcast...