Pulling Player's Club Card out when a Jackpot is hit?

[kewlJ]

I guess one can't really write off BJ related stuff.

You most certainly can.

[accountinquestion]

I guess one can't really write off BJ related stuff.

You most certainly can.

If you say this

Tasha, can I ask what it is you are worried about? At the level you play (or at least that you tell us you play), you should easily be able to offset several jackpots in the low 4 figure range as far as tax liability.

then it seems unlikely you have dealt with gambling related deductions. (I never have yet i know this because I have had an opportunity to at least consider it..)

I have, do, and will report gambling winnings to the IRS but that doesn't mean it is worth keeping track of. Mr green pays for most of my motel rooms or they are heavily comped.

ps I was being sarcastic initially....................

[Treeshade]

Anyone who puts significant time into machines or AP will not benefit from the standard deduction. Your best bet is to invest the money you make into things that give favorable tax benefits. Businesses , real estate, horses, cars used for said businesses, there are many different things to utilize. You would Be hard pressed to find an accountant that knew everything. If you roll up to your local H&R Block with a bunch of W2Gs chances are they won’t know Jack shit.

Successful APs face the same problems successful businesses face. Either you invest the money into things that will lower your tax burden or pay Joe Biden / the Big guy his money

[tableplay]

Your best bet is to invest the money you make into things that give favorable tax benefits.

You either earn over 6% forever (it's fucking Du Pont after all) or they call it and you nearly double your money on the call. Better than an annuity since your principle can be recovered on a sell or liquidation.

[Darkoz]

Anyone who puts significant time into machines or AP will not benefit from the standard deduction. Your best bet is to invest the money you make into things that give favorable tax benefits. Businesses , real estate, horses, cars used for said businesses, there are many different things to utilize. You would Be hard pressed to find an accountant that knew everything. If you roll up to your local H&R Block with a bunch of W2Gs chances are they won’t know Jack shit.

Successful APs face the same problems successful businesses face. Either you invest the money into things that will lower your tax burden or pay Joe Biden / the Big guy his money

Quite correct. I had a difficult time finding a good tax specialist when it came to dealing properly with W2G's.

I did find one though based in Atlantic City so my suggestion is look for one in a gambling town like AC, Vegas or Biloxi.

However they have to also be licensed in your home state.. The one I found was licensed for both NJ and NYS where I reside otherwise he mentioned he would not be able to prepare my taxes.

[accountinquestion]

What is meant by dealing properly with w2gs? Don't you just give the accountant your losses and possibly expenses? Is there something I am missing?

[Tasha]

What is meant by dealing properly with w2gs? Don't you just give the accountant your losses and possibly expenses? Is there something I am missing?

I think Darkoz is referring to the fact that his Team gets multiple W2G'S and Darkoz has probably been tasked with filing taxes on all their behalfs or something like that.

[accountinquestion]

What is meant by dealing properly with w2gs? Don't you just give the accountant your losses and possibly expenses? Is there something I am missing?

I think Darkoz is referring to the fact that his Team gets multiple W2G'S and Darkoz has probably been tasked with filing taxes on all their behalfs or something like that.

Damn Tasha this nakes sense.

First you drop a novel multicarding angle on us but then you make me realize the issues with a team and dealing with w2gs.

[MisterV]

I believe most gamblers could and arguably should itemize as opposed to taking the standard deduction.

Don't simply report only W2-G win amounts without an offset against losses.

Yeah, it takes time and effort to keep accurate records, but do it anyway.

Come tax time, report the total amount of winnings on 1040 and total losses on schedule A.

[jdog]

But if an AP doesn't have a regular job or other source of income wouldn't they have to file everything on a Schedule C?

[MisterV]

No.

Report all winnings as income on 1040, and all losses on schedule A.

Gambling income can indeed be the only income reported on 1040, there need be no other source, e.e. income from a job.

The difficult thing is coming up with defensible numbers that would survive an IRS audit.

[MaxPen]

No.

Report all winnings as income on 1040, and all losses on schedule A.

Gambling income can indeed be the only income reported on 1040, there need be no other source, e.e. income from a job.

The difficult thing is coming up with defensible numbers that would survive an IRS audit.

Professional gamblers file a Schedule C if they are a sole proprietor or single member LLC that includes gambling wins and gambling losses.

C Corp and S Corp teams file differently and get a lot more complex.

[MDawg]

I have only skimmed this and the Confession thread, but, no one has mentioned that many slots players believe that pulling the player card out "tricks" the system into allowing you to have another jackpot? In other words that the system "decides" that you have won enough or that you should not win, so playing anonymously or under someone else's name might allow more wins. That fallacy is commonplace.

As such, it could even be that some of these oddballs who allow a total stranger to insert her card in when they are playing, take one look at her and decide that she must not be winning much, so switching gears on the system might help them win.

[MisterV]

Could be, Max: I was thinking how I file, as a recreational gambler.

It may be "easy" to not keep records and simply report W2-G winnings as income without offsetting losses, but to me it's worth doing the paperwork, keeping track.

[jdog]

As a longtime small business owner, who is fairly proficient at preparing my own taxes, I am uncomfortable with the legal means to document gambling wins/losses. There are certainly grey areas open to interpretation throughout the tax codes but I feel almost anything I have claimed for my business could be validated if enough effort was put in during an audit. A gambling diary/logbook?? Even with lots of details these entries could not ever be fully validated. Sure there may be some record that you have visited a given property, you could pull receipts from the cage or take pics, but at the end of the day you would more or less be at the mercy of the auditor.

I really don't want to be audited so I think I'd rather eat the tax liability at this point. Now if it gets to the point of tens of thousands in W2Gs I'll have to figure out a way to get more comfortable. Maybe those of you who have been through an audit can speak to your experiences with an auditor regarding gaming activity documentation?

[accountinquestion]

As a longtime small business owner, who is fairly proficient at preparing my own taxes, I am uncomfortable with the legal means to document gambling wins/losses. There are certainly grey areas open to interpretation throughout the tax codes but I feel almost anything I have claimed for my business could be validated if enough effort was put in during an audit. A gambling diary/logbook?? Even with lots of details these entries could not ever be fully validated. Sure there may be some record that you have visited a given property, you could pull receipts from the cage or take pics, but at the end of the day you would more or less be at the mercy of the auditor.

I really don't want to be audited so I think I'd rather eat the tax liability at this point. Now if it gets to the point of tens of thousands in W2Gs I'll have to figure out a way to get more comfortable. Maybe those of you who have been through an audit can speak to your experiences with an auditor regarding gaming activity documentation?

I don't want to be audited just because the whole thing bothers me. That being said I don't think any auditor would find anything questionable. I did do some rather large Paypal transfers and didn't pay taxes on them when I received them but they were never income.

Seems like the audit thing has 3 issues.

Those who just don't want to mess with an audit because they're concerned about the IRS in a general sense.
Those who are actively hiding something and don't want the fines or having to make up for it. (I'm not sure how this actually works)
Then those who were bad enough they actually are concerned with incarceration.

I fall into the first of the 3.

I don't think losing gambling logs are going to really be questioned. That is literally the expectation of just about everyone - you are destined to lose. Worst case the IRS says they want more proof and you just hire a tax attorney?

I really don't want to be audited but it wouldn't be a big deal. My concerns are related to possibly being wrong on not withholding for foreign contractors but that is nothing to do with gambling.

[MaxPen]

As long as your stated income correlates to bank deposits I don't see how you ever have a problem. The problem arises when you are acquiring substantially more assets and making substantial deposits that exceed your income.
There is a reason the majority of professional gamblers live on the fringes of society much like drug dealers and other assorted "outlaws". It is what it is and everyone has to decide individually to what degree they support the system.

[Tasha]

I have only skimmed this and the Confession thread, but, no one has mentioned that many slots players believe that pulling the player card out "tricks" the system into allowing you to have another jackpot? In other words that the system "decides" that you have won enough or that you should not win, so playing anonymously or under someone else's name might allow more wins. That fallacy is commonplace.

As such, it could even be that some of these oddballs who allow a total stranger to insert her card in when they are playing, take one look at her and decide that she must not be winning much, so switching gears on the system might help them win.

I was nervous that I could be trespassed for having someone play on my card for a Promotion, hence why I took my Player's Club Card out of his machine when he won the $2,000 Money Train. He has only spun on my card for like three spins, before he got the sudden $2,000 win. It would have been REALLY lucrative if he had not gotten the sudden $2,000 win. Had he only been winning like $10 wins, that could have easily given me 100 points.

[accountinquestion]

I have only skimmed this and the Confession thread, but, no one has mentioned that many slots players believe that pulling the player card out "tricks" the system into allowing you to have another jackpot? In other words that the system "decides" that you have won enough or that you should not win, so playing anonymously or under someone else's name might allow more wins. That fallacy is commonplace.

As such, it could even be that some of these oddballs who allow a total stranger to insert her card in when they are playing, take one look at her and decide that she must not be winning much, so switching gears on the system might help them win.

I was nervous that I could be trespassed for having someone play on my card for a Promotion, hence why I took my Player's Club Card out of his machine when he won the $2,000 Money Train. He has only spun on my card for like three spins, before he got the sudden $2,000 win. It would have been REALLY lucrative if he had not gotten the sudden $2,000 win. Had he only been winning like $10 wins, that could have easily given me 100 points.

It would have been even more REALLY lucrative if you had been trespassed.

[MisterV]

The IRS sets the bar too high viz. tracking gambling income and losses, in my opinion.

They want the number of the slot machine you play on, plus the total amount bet, with itemized totals of wins and losses.

Nobody does that in the real world.

Me, I gamble in sessions.

Ever time I gamble I write down the amount of money I am bringing in for that session, and at the end of the session I write down what I left with, usually zero or a win.

I keep track and at the end of the day do the math to see how much I won or lost overall for the day: I write this figure in my records, and at the end of the year I review and total up all the daily figures to get an accurate total of how much I actually won or lost that year.

Using that as a starting point I then make an estimate of total wins and total losses, making sure that they dovetail with my actual win or loss yearly total.

For the past couple years I've paid taxes as I have made a profit at slots: this year is not so promising.