irs access casino player points?

[Rottersod]

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Correct me if I am wrong, but IF the IRS asks the casino, they CAN give then the info of how much time he spends there, but the casino probably does not have an amount that they paid out to him? Im not advocating any tax cheating, but I think the casinos dont keep that much info on poker players.

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You're kidding, right? If it can be tracked it will be. Payouts have to be tracked in order to balance their books and since it doesn't add any extra overhead to keep track of the names as well it will be. They will then be able to target marketing campaigns to winners and even losers (free 2 day stay. Just play at least 10 hours). They will eventually sell this aggregate data.

[bav]

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Incorrect. You are only required to report NET gambling winnings. If it is your position that you were not a net winner, I believe there is neither a reporting nor a record keeping requirement.

If you have 1099-G earnings, you must report those and can use your journal and time of play to show your net earnings/or zero for the year. You cannot write off losses.

Also, since crim. IRS prosecution (I spell it correctly) is VERY rare and has to meet the BARD standard (Beyond A Reasonable Doubt) these "lifestyle" prosecutions are very difficult to prove and tend to be filed in only the most egregious and provable cases. We're talking Wesley Snipes type stuff, not your weekend 3/6 winnings.

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I agree it's unlikely any recreational gambler is going to greatly irk the IRS from just failing to report 3/6 winnings. You'll have to trigger a serious audit for something else, or just get one of those 1 in 10,000 short straws where the IRS does an intense "because we can" compliance audit.

As for NET winnings being what's taxable.... WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG--not for the non-professional gambler. That's the common sense approach that any rational person would come up with; at the end of the year you tally up your wins and subtract your losses and report anything positive. But that is *NOT* how it works. Which is one reason people are so prone to report their gambling income illegally...you can have a big losing year, and still owe significant taxes from gambling.

From Pub17:
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You must report the full amount of your gambling winnings for the year on Form 1040 line 21. You deduct your gambling losses for the year on line 27, Schedule A.

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From Pub552
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You must keep an accurate diary of your winnings and losses that include... In addition to your diary, you should keep other documents.

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And from http://www.gambling-law-us.com/Artic...ng-Session.htm
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U.S. taxpayers, with the exception of some professional gamblers, are not allowed to ‘net’ their wins and losses (that is, combine them and report only the total), but must add up their total wins from each gambling session and report the total as income (part of ‘Other Income,’ line 21 of Form 1040.) Losses in any year may be claimed, but only up to the amount of winnings reported that year, and then only if the taxpayer elects to itemize deductions rather than taking the standard deduction. [2]

A taxpayer must determine winnings and losses separately.

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See anything that says if you think you had a net negative year you don't have to do any record keeping or report anything at all? And the burden of proof on tax matters is generally on the taxpayer. You don't get to say "haha, I don't have any records, you can't prove anything". They come back with "too bad...you are REQUIRED to have those records and failure to keep them results in our levying a worst-case tax assessment."

If you don't want to do your taxes legally, fine. Especially if you can't itemize, I don't blame you a bit if you want to report your NET winnings for the year. But that's not the law.

[TobDog]

What BAV said!