All types of Gambling Chat Room

[jarsch501]

Most recent blackjack tip:

What I am about to divulge is one of the best kept secrets in the casino industry. All the gambling houses know it but there are only a handful of gamblers who are aware of this well kept secret. It deals with claiming your gambling losses on you income tax.

The casinos have what they define as 2 types of players, slot players and table players. Let's begin with the slot players and then move on to the tables.

When trying to keep track of your losses it is imperative that you always use you player card in every machine you play and at every casino you play at. The reason you want to do this is so that at the end of the year you can contact each and every casino and ask for a printout of your play. This way you can determine if your losses exceed your winnings and if they do you can claim them on your taxes.

The casinos will be happy to supply you with this information, in fact, it's the law. An interesting twist to this law is the casinos don't supply a year end statement to the IRS or any other organization with this information unless it is under a court order. Although this can happen it is very, very rare.

Now, that is not to say the IRS is not made aware of large jackpots that are won on one spin. In order to claim any jackpot that is over $1200.00 from a single spin you must first sign papers supplied by the slot attendant stating you won the money before they will pay you. You have the option at that time to either have the taxes taken out right then or you can pay them at the end of the year. My recommendation is to tell them you will pay the tax at the end of the year; if you have them taken out prior to them paying you, they'll deduct 38% of your win for taxes.

Remember, your losses could very well exceed you jackpot winnings by the end of a year so there is a good chance you wouldn't owe the government any taxes from the big payouts and you'll be able to prove it with your casino printouts.

Now in the case where you win more than you lose in a year the law does require you claim that as income and the casino does not furnish this information to the IRS. So remember, the responsibility for reporting is left solely up to you.

Now, that covers the slot player. The table player is basically the same. If you are the type of player who uses your player card at the tables so you get credit for your play to earn comps (hopefully you've pick up a tip or too on how to get more of those from prior tips), you too can get a year end printout of your activities for tax purposes.

The table player can also run into the situation of needing to fill out income tax papers at the cashier if you are cashing in more than $10,000 in chips at one time. Any amount under that will not require any paperwork so you won't need to worry about them asking if you want the taxes taken out now or paying them at the end of the year.

Some players for whatever reason wish to remain anonymous whether they are slot players or table players. These individuals would not be able to claim their gambling losses since they do not use a player card and the casino cannot keep track for them.

With the old year coming to a close I thought this tip for taxes might come in handy for those of you who use your player card or at least give you ideas for the coming year.

Have a happy and joyous holiday!

From http://www.blackjacknocounting.com