“If they work with a player’s card, it’s easy to find out what was gambled.” “If players are participating or continuing to participate in one casino or in one of the chain casinos, then they should be registered to a player’s card or notify a pit boss or manager who knows how long they’ve been there,” Randle said. But if you hit the big one, you’ll be grateful for having signed up. Sure, you’ll get all the company’s promotional come-ons, and it can be unnerving to know somebody out there knows how much you put into a slot machine on a regular basis. The first piece of advice from Randle and Mills is to be sure to register for the casino’s loyalty club program and use the card whenever you play. Most people understand that while casino winnings are considered personal income and must be reported to the IRS, the total amount of casino losses can be subtracted from winnings to calculate the total tax burden. Randle, a former IRS agent in Southern California, has seen things from both the perspective of the player and the tax collector and was kind enough to be interviewed during the extremely busy tax season, with returns due April 18. I reached out to Dan Randle and his wife, Paula Mills, of Dan Randle and Associates, a Las Vegas-based company that advises people on tax collection issues and IRS audits. After that column published, I received several emails from readers asking for details on what to do to protect themselves from the tax collector should the big jackpot hit. Dina Titus, D-Nev., is leading an effort to increase the jackpot threshold from $1,200 to $5,000 as the minimum amount necessary to report winnings to the IRS and receive a W-2G form from the casino. It must be a fabulous feeling - one I’ve never experienced.Ī casino worker is summoned to pay out your jackpot winnings, and it hasn’t even occurred to you that before you walk out the door with your winnings, you’ll need to square up with the Internal Revenue Service.īefore you even set foot in a casino and insert your money into the machines, it’s wise to develop a strategy to keep as much of that money as possible from the IRS.Ī couple of weeks back, I reported that Rep. The bells and whistles go off, the lights pulsate and people you don’t even know surround you with congratulatory pats on the back and high-fives. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) sitting at your favorite slot machine inside your favorite local casino when the big one hits. Harrah College of Hospitality building on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, in Las Vegas. Congresswoman Dina Titus arrives to speak before President Joe Biden talks about lowering prescription drug costs during a speech in the UNLV William F.

Taxes on slot machine winnings