Monthly Win Loss Statements Online MGM

Exactly right.  The IRS DOES accept casino win/loss statements as evidence.  They tell you that in the "Dear Taxpayer" letter.   You get a packet of information, forms to fill out and a list, that that they will review in support of your clamied gambling loss on your 1040 form.  In a full audit, more kinds of evidence is submitted to support other kinds of claimed deductions, e.g. mortgage interest, medical, etc. For evidence of gambling loss, the Casino Win/Loss Statement is an item of evidence on that list.  

Here begins two paragraphs about being taxed.  Or, skip down to Why the Win/Loss Statement?

 - At tax time we submit evidence of all income so they can tax us (grrr):  our W-2 from work, our 1099 annuities, our SS statements, etc.  Those already show some tax withheld (automatic withholding per formulae).   Those forms are evidence.  The we attach copies of those and of our W-2G jackpot forms to our tax return.  W-2Gs are evidence of income too, on which tax must be paid, just like from our job or SS or annuity (grrr). 

 - Despite humanly always wanting more income, we want to show less taxable income at Tax time April 15th.  The IRS allows us to deduct out of pocket expenses such as child care, charity, medical, etc. from income, to lower our Total Taxable Income, the important number.   The IRS also allows us to deduct an amount of gambling loss (line xyz) on the 1040 form, but only up to the amount of our winnings.  Example:  Gambling winning is $10,000.  Gambling loss is $100,000.  Can only deduct $10,000 as gambling loss on the 1040 form.  NOTE:  This is apparently changing, can only deduct amount up to 90% of loss for tax year 2026, so only $9,000 of gambling loss deducted from Total Taxable Income. Waiting on final word on that.

Of course this is way more complex than can be spelled out here.

Why the Win/Loss Statement?  

So, how does anybody prove, or show evidence of, any gambling loss at all, for purposes of deducting from the gambling income and therefore reducing the Total Taxable Income?  The answer has to be--ta da--the casino win/loss statements.   As far as I know there isn't an automatic percentage deductible from the total of W-2Gs from which to fill in on the tax form.  Maybe I'm missing something, but why else would we hold onto those w/l statements for in the event we get audited?  (Good that they are accessible online, of course.)

The casino disclaimer is their policy that they do not stand behind accuracy of the data.  Lots of reasons they can say that.  They don't really know it was me playing with my card in, or somebody else.  They can't verify it was me or someone else at that blackjack table or, as Kevin says, that the dealer and pit boss got it right.  Plus good because it keeps them from being suboenaed by every gambler certain that his w/l is missing a session of big losses.  They already say it isn't accurate.

BUT..................................

When I present MY win loss statement to an auditor, that is MY evidence, that I was in that casino, I played their games and the play was electronically recorded.  They can't disupute that.  The auditor has to decide whether the casino's disclaimer discounts MY evidence, or does the statement seem reasonably believable.  Could an auditor say how much, how many dollars, this or that one is incorrect by?  Of course not.  Even the casino can't (or won't) say so about its own records.  Those who can present their own figures neatly organized (or not), so much the better.  But the statement can be accepted as evidence by itself.  I've been there.

My disclaimer on all this:  JMHO.  Ask me the time and I'll build you a clock.  LOL

Candy

Nope. Absolutely not. You simply cannot, logically or practically, present evidence that your win/loss statements summarize all the gambling you did. You could very easily have wins you didn't report.

And if you support your claim to have lost with those piecemeal periodic statements, that actually looks more suspicious than submitting one aggregated document, because how does the auditor know that you didn't toss the statements that showed winning sessions but kept the ones that showed losers?

And to reiterate, a table game w/l statement doesn't necessarily show ALL your table game action--just that which was tracked by that casino. I've already explained how wildly inaccurate that can be.

So, bottom line, the auditor HAS NO EVIDENCE of your total gambling win or loss for the year, no matter how many sheets of paper you toss in his face. How can you prove that those sheets represent ALL the gambling you did? You can't. How can he prove that they don't? He can't. So it comes down to a subjective evaluation of whether he believes you--coupled with the element of suspicion that generated the audit in the first place. People say, and I agree, that detailed records and piles of paper give an air of verisimilitude to your claims. But that's all they do. They don't PROVE jack-diddly insofar as your overall gambling results are concerned.

In my eight years as an "official" AP (Schedule C), I was never audited. I never even bothered to submit casino win/loss statements, because I knew that they didn't mean jack shit in and of themselves. I claimed a net win and paid taxes on that each year. I once got a letter asking me to clarify some details about the expenses I had deducted (which I could do, as my gambling activities were a business). I responded promptly, and that was the end of it.