That is why Tax Help for Gamblers was born so many years ago.  And because there have always been constant changes in the tax world, that early “baby book” has had to “grow up,” and along the way I have had to bring on expert tax professionals to help me “raise” it to adulthood.   The latest edition, with up-to-date input from Russell Fox, who has personal gambling experience as well as long-time experience in tax preparation, will be the one place you can find the accurate details to help you with most of your gambling tax puzzles. Many do-it-yourself gambler filers consider it their bible.  And many use the book to guide them in their record-keeping all year long and then give it to their tax preparer, especially if he/she has little or no experience in dealing with gambling issues.

A personal note on our tax situation:  We were spoiled by having no state income taxes in NV.  Extra paperwork this month to start having Georgia state tax withheld!

Now for some questions I can answer:

Q:  Why don’t you use a map to get around Columbus if you are having trouble with your GPS?

A:  Thanks for reading my last blog and offering some advice.  Actually, I was a super navigator for some 35 years while I rode shotgun with Brad all over the country – and a map was always in my lap – or close by.  But when he gave up his keys last year, I had to shine up my rusty driving skills – I had driven probably no more than a dozen times in the last 20 years.  However, starting back to driving in Vegas wasn’t too hard for me – and I didn’t need a map.  I knew every route and every shortcut, without ever trying to learn to use the GPS in our car or on my phone.  But when we moved to Columbus, I realized that I needed my full attention on the unfamiliar streets, and so – checking to be sure she is programmed correctly – Ms. GPS will be my best friend for some time!

And speaking of driving:  This is the first time in 65 years that Brad doesn’t have a driver’s license.

Q:  What change in your life do you notice most since your move from Vegas?

A:  There have been so many major changes, but I guess the one that comes up most often is that we have to pull out a credit card ALL THE TIME.  We miss comps!

This may be the longest time ever we have not been around casinos since we moved to Vegas 20 years ago.  Our vacations have normally been planned around casino offers and comps – free hotel rooms, free cruises – and then combined with visits with friends and family.  And some people, hearing that we will be gone for 19 days, have already been asking whether we are getting bored and antsy to get back to VP.  And my answer is indicative of our change of attitudes and interests as we are getting older.  Yes, no matter how much one enjoys vacations, you are always glad to get back to your own home and a routine.  But we have not missed our casino life at all.

Yes, we will be back “in action” in April, but at the slower pace we had already embraced before this trip.  We no longer go out to a casino every day –just 3 or 4 days a week.  Of course, part of this is because of the decrease in good advantage-play opportunities, but more is based on our reduced energy level.   The days we do visit a casino our sessions are usually just 2-3 hours.

Now for answers to reader questions and some tidbits of information that I have found as I have had time to go through my files.

Q: My concern is a tax diary for my daily trips. Any chance maybe you and Bob Dancer can get together and collaborate on a diary to sell? At least we know it’s coming from highly reputable sources.

A: Thank you for your kind words! It would be hard to standardize a diary that would fit all gamblers’ need.  I put a couple sample diary forms in Tax Help for Gamblers, one an electronic example and one a hard-copy version.  If you aren’t skilled with electronic record-keeping, I think nothing beats a little calendar notebook in which you can, after each session, jot down all sorts of info you need/want to remember.

Q: Have you and Brad stopped playing blackjack?

A: We rarely play BJ unless we come across a coupon play or we are on a cruise ship and want to join friends in a purely social entertainment environment.

BRIEFS

I like it when casinos give detailed information about a promotion.  Here was the explanation from an Arizona Charlie’s about bonus points:

     7X Bonus Points: Every Sunday and Thursday in March, all players club members will receive 7X points on all same-day base slot points earned. All players club cards must be removed and reinserted no later than 11:59 p.m. on each promotional date to receive credit.

This is something you need to watch for.  At some casinos, when you are earning drawing entries, you need to remove your card before the stated deadline when the drum will close so your current play will count in figuring your virtual ticket total.

Something I don’t like casinos to do.  Give incomplete promo details that make you feel “tricked”:

SWIPE N’ WIN: Win up to $100 Free Slot Play!

And you win a scoop of gelato!

Frugal transportation hint:

Discount tickets for Nevada residents are available at all of the Monorail’s customer service ticketing offices upon presentation of your valid Nevada driver’s license, State of Nevada government-issued identification card or Nevada Sheriff Card. Local fare is $1 per ride.  Maximum purchase: two single ride tickets per person per day OR one 20-ride ticket no more frequently than every ten days.

Looking to learn how to play a new game?  Many casinos give free lessons, often during not-so-busy daytime weekday hours.  Here is a good one if you are in downtown Las Vegas:

Learn to play a new game or perfect skills with Golden Nugget’s free daily gaming lessons. Lessons are held on the casino floor.

• Three Card Poker, Crazy 4 Poker, Let it Ride, Pai Gow Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’Em and Mississippi Stud Poker

Daily – 10:00 a.m.

• Craps Lessons

Monday-Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.; Thursday-Sunday at 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.

• Blackjack Lessons

Daily – 11:00 a.m.

• Roulette Lessons

Daily – 11:30 a.m.

And in the I-hope-it-happens-but-I’d-bet-against-my-living-long-enough-to-see-it department:

The AGA (the American Gaming Association, which lobbies for the gaming industry ) recently highlighted six key policy areas that they were working on, one of which was “updating gaming tax policy, including an increase to the jackpot reporting threshold from $1,200 to $5,000.”

But I am still receiving questions that I want to address:

“If I have an earlier edition, do I really need this new edition?” 

Perhaps some do not, if their tax situation is rather simple and/or their gambling figures are quite small.  However, this book has more updates than any previous one.  Part of the reason – a big part really – is the major changes brought about by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed by Congress at the end of 2017, one that majorly affected the 2018 federal tax returns. Another factor is the growing number of states which for the last few years have been changing how they treat gambling figures, both for their residents and out-of-state players. The chapter on “How All 50 States Handle Gambling Wins/Losses” could cause you major financial mistakes if you depended on information found in any previous editions.

We have expanded our discussion about sports betting that will help new gamblers deal with tax issues.  We cover in more detail fantasy sports play, describe the new – and surprisingly positive – changes for dog and horse race betters, and added a new section on cryptocurrency.  We warn about a benefit loss for professional gamblers, but reveal a new benefit for them that could be a major money-saver. And we discuss at length the change that is hitting hard many recreational players and the various ways they are dealing with it.

And what might be most valuable in this new edition are the 2018 sample forms in the back of the book, which are quite different from those of previous years.  They also include notes pointing out the new places where you would put various gambling figures.

“Will this book tell me whether, because of all the new changes, I should switch from filing as a recreational gambler to a professional one?”

This book rarely uses the word “should” because the IRS written guidance for gamblers speaks in very general terms and is often vague, even contradictory, and thus open to individual interpretation.  You will probably get tired of us repeating often throughout the book, after giving a range of possible actions, that what you “should” do depends on your individual “facts and circumstances.”  This is why I cannot answer your personal tax questions and I will suggest, as we do often in this book, that you consult your accountant or professional tax preparer, who will look at the big picture of your “facts and circumstances.”  This is why I shudder when people pose tax questions on an Internet forum and someone gives their “opinion” and/or relates their own personal experiences with that matter.  They may be sincere and trying to be helpful, but so often the information can mislead others.

———

This book is also available for all major eBook reader formats, including Amazon Kindle, Nook, and iBooks.  One warning: Be sure if you order the paperback or the eBook online, you check that it is the Fourth Edition. Some previous editions are still being offered, but not worth even a heavily discounted price!

First, I must emphasize that Brad and I  do not keep elaborate spreadsheet gambling records.  When I first got a computer, I tried one year to keep digital records.  I would jot down all pertinent information in a small notebook at the end of each session before we left the casino.  And then when I got home, I would transfer the information to a simple spreadsheet.  However, I never really learned to use Excel so I found this was too time-consuming.  And besides I liked my Old School hard-copy records.  I guess if I had known we were going to be doing this for the next 35 years, I would have taken some Excel lessons.  But instead we have a 35-year hodge-podge of stacked paperwork that would make no sense to anyone else but me!

So, although my paperwork is full of individual details of our session plays, there is no cumulative figuring of play EVs or analysis of where we had won – or lost – more.  As I have written many times, I am not a math person.  A pretty spreadsheet or deep-dive math analysis brings me no particular pleasure.  I am more a big-picture person.  I do the needed math when we are choosing a play, taking the EV of the game and adding players club and promotional benefits.  Comparing the total EV of all possible plays, we decide on the one that will fit our schedule and be the highest positive-expectation choice.  That has been the basic way we have chosen VP plays for the last 30 years.  We don’t know where we have been luckier or where we have had bigger losses.  These facts aren’t important to us. We don’t have to achieve the expected EV in each casino.  It’s all in choosing the best EV in the first place that is the reason for our good total bottom line down through the years.

Of course, this choice of plays has changed over the years.  Used to be the game itself had a positive expectation and all those “extras” I called the “gravy.”  That has slowly changed with the downgrading of good paytables and now we have to really scramble for more “extras” just to push a play into positive territory.

Some of you asked how we handle certain items on our taxes.  The figures I gave in the last blog are just part of raw data and wouldn’t necessarily appear exactly like that on our tax return.  But I will say that when I write about us “winning” or “losing,” I am talking about actual financial results at the end of the year.  Our profit or loss is the actual cash results of our play.  This can include players club money benefits, tournament prizes,  promotional wins, and what we call cash-equivalent benefits, such as gift cards.  We have never counted comps as “wins” although in the last couple of years we occasionally have taken them into consideration when choosing a marginal play.

I can’t give you specific advice on how you should handle gambling-connected items on your return.  But I can suggest a resource that can help you and your tax preparer in making some of these gray-area decisions, the book Tax Help for Gamblers.  And I am happy to tell you that the 4^th edition of this book has been completely updated and expanded to cover all the new tax laws that impact your 2018 return.  Those new tax laws have made things very difficult for many gamblers, and I was glad to find a new expert, Russell Fox, who would help add the technical information that needed to be discussed.

I wanted this book to be out earlier, but the government was very slow in rolling out information and forms.  But we finally got all the 2018 forms to add to the book and it is now at the printers and will hopefully be back by the end of February or early March, with plenty of time for you to make the April 15^th deadline. (There will be an eBook version too but it will not come out until later.)

And talk about a frugal sale – Huntington Press is offering the book (retail at $24.95) at a pre-pub price of $15 through March 15 and that includes shipping to US addresses only.  Order this new 4^th edition here.

This includes gathering up all our gambling records, our day-by-day diary of wins and losses and all the W2-Gs.  And this is the time when it is natural to look back at old records and compare our gambling results with those in past years. We have records for our casino gambling from 1984 – how fast these 35 years have flown by.  The first 17 years we were living in Indianapolis and flying to Vegas and other gambling venues, spending substantial time in casinos after Brad retired in 1989. We were doing well financially and getting a lot of comps but our expenses were high, cutting into our profits.  But since our goal then was to have inexpensive vacations, we were feeling great about our results.  I just ran across this figure in my old records – the first 5 years we took 33 casino vacations with an average cost of $287 each.

In 2002 we sold our condo in Indiana and now became full-time residents in Vegas, which allowed us to take advantage of those “VP glory years.”  So many good promotions we could cherry-pick the best and our profits soared.  Ironically the first year we suffered a loss, but that was soon forgotten when the next 12 years saw some big wins on this rollercoaster ride.

We didn’t have another losing year until 2015, when we were fighting against a gradual reduction in casino benefits.   Despite this, we pulled out a modest win in 2016 and a large one in 2017 despite playing with a slimmer edge than we liked.

2018 was a struggle.  We weren’t playing as much.  Why?  First, we weren’t finding as many good plays, and second, our energy level was decreasing and we weren’t playing as long even when we found a good play.  December 1^st saw us 10K down for the year so far.  We had resigned ourselves to having a losing year.  And then Lady Luck smiled on us.  Lots of 4 deuces and a couple of 4K royals put us back on top a “whopping” $84 profit.  We were probably almost as happy as the time Brad won a ½ million tournament!  Brad always says it is a matchsticks game.

And by the way those last 2 royals in December brought our life-time royal total to 1307.

However, although the text is now done, the project has come to an abrupt stop – and you can blame the government for this delay.  The multitude of tax forms that needed to be changed after new legislation passed by Congress at the end of December 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) informally called Tax Reform 2018, is proving to be impossible for government bureaucracy to handle in a timely manner.  We can’t bring out the book until we have the much-changed new sample forms to include, as we have done in past editions – and it seems these forms won’t be available until after the first of the year at the earliest.

Sooo…. we can’t promise a firm date when the 4^th edition (2019) of the eBook Tax Help for Gamblers will be available for download, but I will keep you informed of the progress.  Hopefully it will be soon enough to give you much-needed help well before the April 15^th deadline.

There is another reason for this blog delay.  I am getting news here and there that Boyd Gaming may have heard the roar of customer complaints about their new “not-improved” and “not-amazing” players club.  Many players are reporting that suddenly their tier score is going up – often citing big numbers – and they have no idea what they did – or didn’t do – to make this happen.  So, I was waiting to see if I could find out some positive facts about all this before I wrote about it.  I hate writing about something I don’t know anything about! 

However, all I have is anecdotal info players have given me, with no explanation or understanding of the why and certainly no how others might get this benefit.    I have no personal data on this phenomenon – Brad’s and my tier score is still pretty much in the casino basement since it was slashed during the changeover.  Our occasional play scoots it up at a snail pace. So, all I can say here is that I will try to do more research and when I find out more, I will certainly write about it in a future blog.

In the meantime, here are a few promotional changes or possible future changes I have come across.

• South Point still has 50+ Prime Time Mondays, but they have discontinued the senior tournament.  They still offer $4 movies that day – and 50+ seniors also get that $4 price on Wednesday movies.
• Palms temporarily had a small-wheel check-cashing promotion with limited benefits but now they have discontinued that, offering you only a 2-for-1 buffet or a drink coupon. All the other Station casinos have a check-cashing wheel with a variety of benefits, some quite substantial.
• Still no senior benefit program at the Palms like at all the other Station properties.  VP inventory is better at any other company property and at nearby competitors.   With all the construction going on that will keep some visitors away, you would think that they would add promotions to keep up the visitor count, not downgrade right and left. I hate to be critical, but I just can’t understand the Palms policies these days.
• There seems to be a new comp policy at Station casinos.  I think this has varied in the past, depending on the particular property.  But I was informed by a casino executive that there is now a policy company-wide that a host can not issue a “discretionary” comp if you have available comp dollars in your account.  It was suggested that you first redeem points (for cash or free play) before you ask a host for any comp.  (This seems to be patterned after the policy most Strip properties have.)
• Watch for changes in players clubs, especially if a casino changes owners. The M casino has announced a new club coming the first of the year.  Hard Rock will be introducing a new club.

I hope I can write a more positive blog next week!

Vegas4locals – one of the best places to find free and/or inexpensive things to do in Vegas, with tons of information for both frugal locals and visitors alike.

MarksLasVegas  –  Click on the tabs at the top of the website for both gambling and Las Vegas info, including interesting information under “Offbeat and Tidbits,” helpful info if you need medical help while staying on the Strip, and the Bellagio Fountain Show song list.

Thrillist.com recently posted an eclectic list of a whopping 45 free things to do in Las Vegas, including some offbeat possibilities I had never read about before.

And sometimes I just run across some articles on interesting subjects. Here’s one about Vegas opening a gambling court.     And here is one that describes one man’s quest to make money in minor casino games with unusual and mostly little-known techniques.

Holiday Gift Ideas

Speaking of resources, are you looking to buy a holiday gift for a gambling friend or relative who likes to visit casinos?  I recommend you check out the LVA holiday catalog.  There you can find books for the professional gambler as well as for those who just enjoy casino games as a recreational choice.  There are also selections for those who are looking for general information about Las Vegas, including a guide to restaurants all over town.

And for the frugal, check out the section of the LVA Shop highlighting products that are on sale.

There is also a special Jean Scott section. Some have asked me whether they should pick up my new book, The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide, if they already have read/studied my other books in the Frugal Gambler series. That depends.  Long-time experienced gamblers might not find much new but casual players might find it helpful for my discussions about the new changes in the casino world.  It is the perfect book for newbie gamblers and for those who are thinking about choosing new games.   I have expanded the book to cover all casino games, listing the casino edge for each one and giving techniques to reduce that edge. So although it is a good VP primer, the information on players club and comp systems would help most players in a casino make their gambling bankroll stretch for more casino fun time.

More Frugal Gambling is still the best place to start to learn about the complex casino comp system. This is still the only book that covers this subject in depth, and it will give you a solid base to understand better the updates in the more recent Guide book. The “Frugal Gambler Video Poker Scouting Guide” pocket-size booklet is a must-carry for VP players who are looking to play the best games.

I am feverishly working on bringing out the 4^th edition of Tax Help for Gamblers, a necessary update with all the recent tax changes in 2018.  Russell Fox, a noted EA and tax preparer, has come on board to help me with all the major ramifications for gamblers.  We would have liked to have had this book out yesterday, but we are having to wait for the “beloved” IRS to bring out the 2018 tax return forms.  I will let everyone know when the new book is available but I figure now it won’t be out until after the first of the year.  Just hoping the government will see the need for the new forms VERY SOON.

Sometimes a question is so general or covers such a broad subject that I can’t give a short answer.  I then often refer them to one of my books where I have spent many pages covering that topic extensively.  An example of this is the numerous questions I am getting about how to handle gambling taxes.  I understand the concerns people have since the new tax bill kicked in on January 1, with major and dramatic changes for all taxpayers and especially for many gamblers.  I can still recommend, to learn the basics, the present 3^rd edition (eBook only) of Tax Help for Gamblers, rather than older paperbacks which are quite out of date.  However, I am working – feverishly I must say – on a brand new 4^th edition which Huntington Press is planning on bringing out at the end of this year so you will have complete information to help you with your 2018 tax returns.  I have asked Russ Fox, an enrolled agent who has been helping gamblers through the tax maze for almost 20 years, to come onboard this book project and help with this update.

In the meantime, there is another source that can give you current tax information – past blogs I have written.  I need to remind you of other valuable ways you can use my blogs in addition to merely reading them for useful hints as they come out.   When you finish reading this blog, go to the right-hand margin.  First, at the top, you will see the “Subscribe” section where you can easily sign up so you will be notified by e-mail when I publish a new post.  Handy for you, since I don’t have any regular schedule. (Handy for this slowing-down-because-I-can’t-seem-to-retire blogger!)

There are other sections you might use for other purposes but the one I think is really neat is “Categories.”  I actually use this myself since I routinely forget what I wrote and when.  Let’s say you want to see what I have written about taxes.  Scroll down and click on the subject “Taxes” and everything I have written about this pops up.  The most recent blogs on a subject come up first – and so you can find out what I wrote about taxes since the new Tax Reform 2018 bill was approved in late December of 2017.

This feature can lead you back to blog entries I wrote many years ago.  Dang, I can’t believe it – 18 years of my rambling writings!!!!  Obviously, many of my old Frugal Fridays articles and then my Frugal Vegas entries have outdated information.  But it always amazes me how the basics I discuss are often just as true today as they were so long ago and would be helpful for newbie gamblers.  And some of the timeless “stories” I told will take some of my long-time readers through a fascinating trip of memories.

There is one other reason why I might not answer some of your questions: I DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER!  And that is why I can’t address all the questioning chatter about the new B Connected players club that Boyd Gaming is introducing.

Brad and I went to a “launch party” at a large banquet room in the Orleans Arena. The kiosk where we had to sign in to activate for the drawing (if we hadn’t already swiped at a Boyd casino that day) was very slow – I felt right at home immediately for a Boyd event!   There was a photo opportunity in front of a wall covered with Boyd logos, with an employee ready to take your picture if you gave her your phone that had a camera.

Here is ours, trying to look optimistic:

The finger foods and drinks were spread around in many areas around the room so there weren’t any long lines – that was a plus.  There seemed to be more people than chairs at tables, but we finally found seats – so that was good.

We were given an “Emerald” brochure when we entered, telling about a new annual cruise benefit for the Holland America line.  I saw some details, including “Interior cabin only” and multiple fees not covered by this “free” benefit, not all of them priced out.  Very few details were given about an annual stay at the Baha Mar in the Bahamas. Also, some details were given about a quarterly Las Vegas trip, with $75 in food credits. (We later were told that Las Vegas residents could use that benefit at the IP in Biloxi, Mississippi.)  We were told that there would be a new top tier added – Onyx – but no information about how to reach it.  We will need so many more details about all these benefits.

I am trying not to be cynical but I hope they were not trying to get us excited about these new extra perks so when we found out later we would not be upset if the nitty-gritty details – which were not mentioned at the party – showed a major overall decrease in player benefits.

We went to this event with few expectations and therefore were not surprised at the lack of specifics. Now we wait for solid information – tier structure, point value, cashback/free play requirements, etc.  – so we can evaluate the total program.  Unconfirmed rumors on the Internet and pessimistic guesses are not helpful.  Hopefully we will find complete in-writing details on their website by their official launch date, August 27.  We each have different standards which we use to decide whether a casino is a good place for us to play, but we need comprehensive information about all the features and benefits so we can make this decision based on the total picture.

If you are panicking because you haven’t filed your return for 2017 and the deadline is this coming Tuesday, the current e-book edition of Tax Help for Gamblers can be downloaded immediately at this website.  Most gambling tax issues are covered, no matter what game you play, and many of the common tax questions are answered there.  If your situation is so complicated that you are still confused, then I suggest you file for an extension and then see a professional tax preparer who is knowledgeable about gambling issues.

If you have questions about how the new tax changes will affect your filing of your 2018 returns, help is on the way as there will be a new updated edition of my tax book later in the year.  In the meantime, I have discussed in some of my recent blogs some of those changes that affect gamblers specifically and talked about some of the techniques that players are using to mitigate their negative effects.  One reader suggested using multi-line lower-denomination games instead of higher-level single-lines to avoid W-2Gs.  That is a great idea but often one that is not an option because there are no games readily available with the same good pay tables at every level, and it really doesn’t solve anything since the IRS expects you to pay taxes on your wins whether you get any paperwork or not.   Another reader suggested that I talk about using the session method for this purpose.  That might be a good way but, until the IRS changes the way it looks at gambler returns, you might not want to face the hassle of explaining your figures in an audit.

I discussed taxes on a recent “House of Cards” radio show, Episode 53

And unrelated to taxes, you can read a recent interview I gave about casino freebies.  I wasn’t given the opportunity to vet or edit it – so remember the author bears full responsibility for all the material there.

First, I need to correct some misunderstandings.  This new law will not affect how you report your gambling figures on your 2017 return, the one you are probably working on now.   You will probably follow the same reporting path as you did on your 2016 return if your financial situation, particularly the gambling details, have not changed much.

Second, the new law actually doesn’t change the basic rule for how recreational gamblers can report their wins and losses.  You put your wins under “Income” on page 1 of your return.  Then you have two choices when deciding how to report your losses.  You can add those losses to other deductions you report on a Schedule A, but there is a limit – you can only put down a loss figure that is not higher than your win figure on page 1.  However, many people will use a second option because their deductions, even including the gambling losses, is not as high as the standard deduction.  Therefore, they will take the standard deduction.  This second option has always been painful for gamblers, since that means that they will be paying taxes on their gross wins rather than the net win after they deduct their losses.  However,  for most gamblers who play at the lower denominations, they just consider this a small “entertainment expense.”

BUT – why is there always a government “but”?  Now that I’ve explained what has not changed for gamblers in the new tax law, I will need to explain what has affected many gamblers big-time!  Although this isn’t a specific change addressed to gamblers, it is something that many gamblers will need to carefully consider this year even though it doesn’t kick in until 2018 returns have to be filed.  Then that standard deduction I talked about in the last paragraph will just about be doubled.  That will make that second option a little less painful for those light gamblers with smaller win/loss figures because they will make up some of the loss they incur for having to pay taxes on their gross wins with the tax savings of a bigger standard deduction.

However, it will hit hard those heavier players with large gambling figures, especially those that are also being hit with reduced deductions, like mortgage interest or state taxes.  In our next edition of Tax Help for Gamblers (which will come out in time to help with your 2018 returns), Marissa and I will have to revise this former advice on which option to use, “Many [taxpayers] find they need to figure it both ways to see which has the lowest overall tax obligation.”  Sad to say fewer gamblers will find it better to itemize than to take the standard deduction, and they will end up paying taxes on their large gross wins.

So, what are many high-level recreational gamblers doing this year?  I’ve been talking to some of them.  This is not a happy group! Many are already being slammed in their home state that doesn’t allow deductions for gambling losses.  Now this seems like a fatal blow.  Perhaps they will just take up another hobby, they say.  More are considering dropping down in denomination to avoid those pesky W-2G’s although they are full aware that they should report all winnings whether there is a paper trail to the IRS or not.  A few think they could continue playing at high levels if they switched to the category of “professional” gambler, aware that the IRS rules for this are strict and involve gray areas that might have to be challenged in tax court.  But if they qualify, this would solve the main problem since they could net out their gambling income on a business Schedule C  – although the thoughts of this advantage would be tempered by the knowledge that self-employment taxes would be a hefty cut in their profits.

And speaking of filing as a professional gambler brings me to one notable change in the new tax law that specifically refers to this small category.  Although these professionals can still deduct business expenses related to gambling, such as travel costs to casinos, these expenses added to gambling losses can no longer total any more than the win figure.  Professionals now will run into the basic federal income tax rule that has always plagued the recreational gambler, that there is no way you can claim a net gambling loss for any one tax year, no matter how much you have actually lost.

Any hope for gambling tax breaks in the future?   Actually, there is a surprising supporter of the beleaguered gambler – casinos!

Say what?

The American Gaming Association (AGA), the lobbying organization advocating for the casino industry is putting out strong words about slot tax reform:

Outdated slot tax reporting requirements are cumbersome and costly for patrons, casinos and the government. AGA will unleash an aggressive campaign to modernize these outdated reporting requirements.

Go back to my December 22 blog where I discussed my hope  – if I can possibly live long enough – that I will someday see gambling tax relief.