I earned $1,000 in a drawing. The casino insisted I show my Social Security Number, even though it was below $1,200. They said they wouldn\u2019t pay me if I didn\u2019t show it. So, I did. Were they legally entitled to demand my SSN?<\/font><\/p>\n\n\n\nYes, they were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The $1,200 you refer to is the lower limit for a W2G, which is a form called \u201cCertain Gambling Winnings,\u201d and for video poker players, it is issued when you hit a jackpot of sufficient size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For drawings, the appropriate form is called Form 1099-MISC. The magic number for 1099s as applied to drawings is $600 PER YEAR. Your $1,000 prize is more than that, so yes, they should issue you a 1099 and they need your SSN to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some casinos collect your SSN for ALL winnings simply because the $600 figure is an annual figure. If you win $50 in February, $250 in April, and $300 in October, the casino should send you a 1099 at the end of the year. Some do. Some don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The casino cannot know in February if you\u2019re going to win any additional drawings throughout the year, so they are entitled to collect the SSN every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to drawings, earning money in a tournament qualifies towards the same $600 1099 threshold. On occasion I\u2019ve been issued a W2G rather than a 1099 for a tournament winning. When that happened, I simply recorded it in my records the same way as the tax form was issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can you get around this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure. You do not have to provide your SSN for drawings. You keep your SSN and the casino keeps the money. Similarly for W2Gs, if you hit for $4,000 and simply walk out of the casino, you will not have to give your name or SSN. They will not chase you! The casino will keep the $4,000, of course, along with whatever credits you had remaining on the machine when you hit the jackpot. There are people who have gone this route. I\u2019m not one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
W2Gs and 1099s are reported to the IRS and you need to account for them on your tax return. Exactly how you do this is a question for someone more expert than I am in this. Failure to account for 1099s and W2Gs can trigger audits and penalties, which I am expert enough to tell you is no fun at all.
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I get inspiration for columns from all sorts of places. This was a question sent in to gamblingwithanedge@gmail.com for Richard and me to answer on the podcast. I will answer it there the next time we have a \u201cBob and Richard answer their mail\u201d show (which is usually when we haven\u2019t been able to schedule […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":6498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Winning a Drawing by Bob Dancer","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[558,643,557],"tags":[561,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}