Taxes on Casino play

[tangled]

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At the end of the year, the IRS tax form has only one text-box that says "profit or loss form business". So, yes, at the end of the year, you would only enter the profit or loss.

However, for record keeping the IRS would expect you to have records of your wins and losses.

Furthermore, if you are making money (or at least trying to make money) by gambling, then your travel expenses to gambling destinations also become legitimate expenses and you can write them off.

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I am not a tax professional, but based on what I have been told, this is incorrect unless you are a professional gambler.

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Yeah... TOTALLY incorrect. COMPLETELY wrong. ABSOLUTELY horrible advice.

The IRS *DOES NOT* allow recreational gambler to net profits and losses. You MUST declare every penny of gambling income as income. There are no limits set. $1 or $1,000,000, you are required by law to declare it all as income. Not the net of wins and losses, but every single gambling session that comes out positive must be tallied and included as income. THEN you can, if and only if you itemize, deduct losses from gambling sessions as a schedule A deduction up to the amount of the wins.

This leads to some tax insanity. It's incredibly, comically unfair. If you gamble daily and each day win or lose $1000, so at the end of the year you had 182 days you won $1000 and 183 days you lost $1000, you ended up losing money for the year. But nono... you must declare $182,000 as income. Now pull out schedule A and put $182,000 down as a deduction. Think it'll come out even? Think again. Schedule A deductions phase out when your income goes over something like $140K. Guess what... the $182,000 of winning sessions counts! So you don't get to deduct all of your losses. You have a losing year gambling, and you are legally required to pay income tax on some if it anyway.

This is why people regularly cheat on their taxes when it comes to gambling. It's not necessarily that they think of themselves as tax cheats. It's simply that they are doing what seems fair and reasonable. Alas, it's not the law. So each person has to decide if/whether they want to do what's legal and pay more taxes, or do something else.

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc419.html
http://www.gambling-law-us.com/Artic...ng-Session.htm
http://www.pokernews.com/news/2006/3...er-players.htm

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Isn't there another mistake made in the originally quoted post? Unless you are a professional, you can't claim expenses. But you still are better off (usually)to claim as a recreational player because you don't have to pay SS tax on your gambling wins like a professional does. At least that is what I thought. I could be wrong.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

According to the US tax code, *all* gambling winnings are taxable income.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

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so if you win a .50 cent pot online you need to report it ? Or do your report your net winning after wons and losses at year end?

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No. Reporting the net of wins - losses as income is expressly forbidden per IRS Publication #529.

All winning sessions are reported as *other income* on form 1040, all losing sessions (not to exceed wins) are reported as an itemized deduction on Schedule A.

[BBMW]

Not really.

The reason people do it is that they don't want to pay the taxes, paying the taxes is a hassel, and it's just easier to cash out, stuff the cash in your pocket, spend it, and forget about the taxes. This is 98.4527% of poker players do. Of these, a large number, probably most, relish the fact that, at least in this one situation, they get to screw the government.

The only ones who don't are professionals, who can't keep the cash under the radar or show another source of income, and recreational players who manage to get a big enough hit (like a $10,000+ tourney win) to put them on the IRS's radar.

If you don't fall into the categories listed above, the chances of getting caught, especially for B&M player where the cash leaves no footprints, are essentially 0.

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This is why people regularly cheat on their taxes when it comes to gambling. It's not necessarily that they think of themselves as tax cheats. It's simply that they are doing what seems fair and reasonable. Alas, it's not the law. So each person has to decide if/whether they want to do what's legal and pay more taxes, or do something else.



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[poorolrich]

You got it exactly. My brother has been playing poker in L V for years and has never paid taxes on his winnings. Also, he does not enter any tournaments!!! so he does not raise any red flags. He knows exactly how to fly under the radar. He paid taxes until he retred at 55 years old and says look where it has gotten us. Our country is so screwed up now(his words). So he makes a small/medium retirement check every month and around $80,000 a year playing poker. He has a good life and he loves it. Been going on 8 yrs now.