Each year about this time – mid-February – I am knee-deep in tax paperwork. Hopefully we have received all the W2s and 1099s that we need to organize our financial matters so we can give the necessary information to our tax preparer.
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 1st 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” $84 profit. We were probably almost as happy as the time Brad won a ½ million tournament! Brad always says it is a matchsticks game.
And by the way those last 2 royals in December brought our life-time royal total to 1307.
Thank You Jean.
Regarding the reporting of win/loss your readers may find IRS Revenue Procedure 77-29, Section 3 instructive.
Did you ever figure out, for any year, what the actual EV of your cumulative play was? I’m guessing that it was negative the last few years. Of course, I’m talking about inherent EV, excluding comps, mailers, free play, and other goodies.
In fact, do you factor those into your yearly grand total? I know that the IRS is fuzzy on whether comps and free play are taxable income. In the absence of guidelines either way, I simply report wins and losses from slot club annual statements. But if I factored in the fair cash value of free meals and room comps, not to mention free play and casino “gifts,” I suspect that my modest losing year would actually be a winning year. Though like you, my actual cash results were a bit better than could have been expected.
Love hearing About you’re statistics. I had a come back too in December which is not usual. For no statistical reason I usually have a bad December. Glad I didn’t heed my own warning! I came out ahead 6k with an 8k royal six hands in on 2$ NSUD at the local Indian casino. That was on December 29th. As soon as I got paid I called it quits for 2018.
Hello Jean, I really enjoyed your tax time post. Keeping extensive records like you have and then sharing your wins/losses with your readers is very valuable and interesting to us.
I know what you mean when it comes to lower energy level. We used to stay on the strip in the early 80’s and gamble around 10-12 hours a day. Now, not so much. Keep up the good work, I enjoy your writing!
Hi, love to read your posts. I heard that Railroad Pass casino offers a $5.50 BUFFET from Monday to Thursday. When I visit Las Vegas, how do I find out about these kinds of deals? Thanks for your time