Poll : 25 March - 07 April 2015

Analysis

As the dreaded tax-filing deadline looms (look out next week for our listings of associated promos, in and out of the casinos), here are the results of our timely poll and a selection of your thoughts with regard to gambling winnings and their declaration, in light of the IRS' proposal to lower the threshold for some games. And don't forget that if you are among those who do declare gambling winnings/losses on your tax form, our detailed and informative Tax Help for Gamblers 2015 edition is an invaluable, money- and headache-saving aid to getting it right, priced at just $7.99 (see the recent coverage from Forbes.com:

• "This will impact me a great deal. In MI they tax you 4.4% on every W2-G, with no deductions for losses. So even on 25 cent machines this will create many additional W2-Gs, with second and third place jackpots. So each $600 jackpot will cost me $26.40 in taxes that I do not pay now. This will cause me to further decrease my play and the amount [I gamble]."
  
  
• "Am in the group for whom it will be a major pain in the butt. I feel that the additional income to the IRS will be small at best, especially with anyone who keeps any kind of records for losses to offset winnings over whatever threshold the IRS might decide on; it may well cost more money to the IRS than they will receive. Just puts the FEDS in our lives more than we want anyway. PS--it is hard to write this without any curse words you could not print!!!"
  
  
• "I am appalled but not surprised. They have stopped paying out on slots so they came up with another tactic to get your money."
  
  
• "This would be slightly less painful if the casinos were friendly/efficient about submitting tracked-play figures from player cards. It would almost always be quick and easy to show losses to offset wins of this size. I like the idea of moving the threshold upward to eliminate a lot of tax paperwork, for us and the efficient Fed. If it means the taxes are collected on the spot, it's a money grab by the IRS that will ultimately result in fewer tax dollars collected in April."
  
  
• "Seems that you are looking for people to be outraged based on the choices provided in the poll. How about my answer- I do gamble and I will have more paperwork but I am fine with lowering the reporting amount to $600. You undoubtedly will get the results you are seeking since the option of 'this is fine' does not exist." [Ed: Guess it simply didn't occur to us, but fair enough!]
  
  
• "I think the tax on jackpots should be eliminated. Since almost everyone loses in the long run it doesn't seem right to have to pay taxes when you're fortunate enough to hit something. Say someone who visits Las Vegas once per year over 10 years loses $2000 gambling each trip the first 9 years but then hits a jackpot for $4000 on year 10, which causes him to be up $2000 for that year. This individual is down $16,000 long term, but now has to pay taxes for getting lucky in year 10. Of course, lowering the threshold will only make this worse, particularly for small timers."
  
  
• "I really wanted to mark BOTH of the first two options: I understand the current $1,200 watershed has been in effect since the days of mechanical slots and before video poker even existed, when any jackpot above $500 was a rarity. It needs to be UPWARDLY adjusted to take account of inflation and new higher-denom., multi-line, and linked-progressive games, but instead they want to HALVE that allowance? That’s crazy and I protest! I’m not so much concerned about the tax implications of a lower reporting threshold, as I am about what an even bigger pain in the butt this will be in terms of annoying and time-consuming paperwork. You won’t have to be playing a high-stakes slot machine to find your session regularly interrupted by the need to fill in tedious paperwork. NO THANKS!! We are from Canada and fly to Vegas or Atlantic City 6-8 times a year. The lowering of the Jackpots to $600 will stop our gaming trips to the USA. Boo...!"
  
  
• "I voted against this because of the paper work but should probably tell you that I haven't paid income tax since retiring in 1992 at 65 so I would need to win quite a bit more to pay any tax. I did win a progressive once for $2,300.00 but didn't come close to a tax bracket."
  
  
• "You may want to check on this: an important distinction to the new suggested guidelines is that the $600 may apply to not to one specific win as the $1200 does now, but to the total profit per gambling SESSION."
  
  
• "I would accept the proposed IRS rule if it applied to winnings at table games."
  
  
• "I'm certain the vast majority of players don't accurately report their wins on the US 1040. How often do you see players keeping an "accurate diary or similar record of your losses and winnings" as required by the IRS? Even if you do keep good records, you get dinged at tax time because of the convoluted way the IRS, and the likes of Turbo Tax, see gambling "income". To them, money magically spits out of the slots along with a W2-G, with no consideration for any money that went in before or after the hand pay. At $600, there will be lots more players who will have a W2-G and insufficient deductions to itemize; thus the IRS gets a piece of the action even from losers (most of us).
  
  
• "As someone that routinely plays $50 and $100 denom machines, the $1,200 threshold is ridiculous as every time you hit a 3 of a kind, the machine locks and it takes two employees - one with a clipboard and one with a barrel key to key off and record each 'jackpot' on an accrual log. It would make more sense if the threshold was set not to a dollar amount, but credits relative to the denomination played. For example, a bonus four of a kind 400 or 800 credits or higher with minimum of $1,200."
  
  
• "As a casino slot attendant, I can't even imagine how difficult this will make my job. I also think this will possibly deter people from gambling. $600 jackpots are very common. No one wants to do that much paperwork."
  
  
• "I am Canadian and it is already bothersome every time we win and have to wait for forms. Additionally, we are discounted 30% on the spot and can only claim a deduction on separate losses we have documented in the same year. To even attempt to receive a partial refund from the IRS; companies charge approx 25% of the amount withheld for us to recover any funds at all. Then we have the difference in our dollars and ours is 70% of yours and no credit is given for the costs of travel to the USA by any means. Finally, we do NOT pay taxes in Canada on any amount of winnings at casinos or lotteries here. Sounds like a no brainer to just stay home and gamble here."