☰
Recently I was playing Pai Gow poker when this individual sitting next to me received a royal flush. The award was over $1,200. No W-2G was given him; however the pit boss requested identification. The man gave some ID and the pit boss came back later saying the ID did not show his home address. So he gave up more ID that showed his address and the pit was now able to give him his payday. What's with all of the ID required by the casino?
[Editor's Note: This answer was graciously provided by Andrew Uyal, who most of you know by now is a floor supervisor at the Cromwell (when it's open) and author of our book The Blackjack Insiders.]
Sometimes it’s difficult to explain a specific situation like this. Plenty of rules, regulations, and procedures are in place. Let’s face it though, strange things happen outside of those procedures all the time. With that in mind, let’s see if we can get to the bottom of it.
First off, $1,200 is a commonly known threshold for tax papers -- because of royal flushes on video poker. Indeed, $1,200 on any one hand/spin/play will warrant a W-2G on a slot machine.
The threshold to receive a W-2G on a table game is different. The payout must exceed $600 and exceed odds of 300-1.
This alone explains why there was no W-2G. The payout for royals on Pai Gow (from the Fortune Bonus) is 150-1, so no paperwork.
Now, as to why the player was required to give additional ID before receiving the payout, it’s a little more complicated. There are many additional bets on table games nowadays. Many Pai Gow tables, for instance, have a progressive on the table. When players hit these progressives, ID is required for the manager to validate the jackpot, even on small payouts.
This is where speculation comes into play, assuming the progressive was in play. Since the payout was over $1,200 and no paperwork was given, we can assume a $5 bet, because anything less would have warranted paperwork. Most of the new progressives are $5 minimums anyway.
If this was the case, the payout would have needed to exceed $1,505 to warrant a W-2G. (Why the extra $5? Because the casino takes in the player's bets on progressive wagers). If the payout was more than $1,200, but less than $1,505, he wouldn’t have been issued a W-2G, and the manager would need his ID info to validate the jackpot in the progressive system.
If these weren’t the circumstances, then some internal controls specific to that casino probably required ID for certain payoffs. This is common at smaller casinos.