"Players Club" cards and the IRS

[Moyer]

Both of the casinos near me now use players club cards for poker players. They are simply used to keep track of how long you play. They credit you about 90cents/hr that you can use mainly for food comps. Since you give them your ID when signing up for a card, I am wondering if these records could be used by the IRS during an audit. I should probably ask someone at the casino, but I figured I'd see if anyone here had any info. Thanks.

[theDetroitKid]

good question BUMP

[FCBLComish]

[ QUOTE ]
Both of the casinos near me now use players club cards for poker players. They are simply used to keep track of how long you play. They credit you about 90cents/hr that you can use mainly for food comps. Since you give them your ID when signing up for a card, I am wondering if these records could be used by the IRS during an audit. I should probably ask someone at the casino, but I figured I'd see if anyone here had any info. Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Since they do not track how much you buy in for, or how much you cash out, there is no way they can track your wins and losses. What information could they possibly give to the IRS that would hurt you? Unless you are afraid they will tax the $.90 per hour you are getting in comps?

[NevadaKaz]

Unless they are recording your wins the records will be uselss for an audit.

However, if you want to play it safe, keep detailed sessions records. Make sure to include 'losing' sessions [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[wrschultz]

Unless the casino has RFID chips and somehow links them to your player's club card when you cash in and out, (which I don't think any casino in the world currently does,) I really don't see how there could be any information that would be useful for the IRS to use against you in an audit...

[BBMW]

Actually they could help. If you keep a diary, and use that to document losses to offset any reported winnings, they records from the players club system could be used to verfy that you were actually at a casino when you said you were.

[Moyer]

That's true, they don't track wins or losses. I guess I was thinking more like "We checked the local poker room and you've logged about 20hrs a week there, yet you haven't reported any wins or losses from that establishment."

Of course if you haven't reported anything, it may be a stretch to assume they would check there.

[Moyer]

Basically, I've reported every dime that I cashout from the internet, but I may have accidentally missed a couple B&M sessions.