Vegas Q&A: Do I Tell IRS About My Table-Game Winnings?
UPDATED: 10:39 a.m. EST March 15, 2004
Question: I know that a payout of more than $1,200 on a slot machine is reported to the IRS. What is the limit on the amount of chips you can cash in at a table game at one time before it is reported?
Zung from Georgia and Bob from Pennsylvania
Answer: This brings up some important legal questions that essentially boil down to a difference between what you're supposed to do and what most people do.
According to IRS regulations, you are supposed to report any gambling winnings over $600 in any calendar year. That's from any combination of slots, video poker or table games (like blackjack).
Now, how many people do you think really do that? Yeah, exactly.
The law requires the casinos to fill out the 1099 miscellaneous income voucher for any slot or video poker winning over $1,200, but the same regulations do not apply for table games. Essentially, the Nevada casinos said it was impossible to track play at table games, and the IRS believed them. Their argument -- and it's a fairly decent one -- is that if someone walks away from a blackjack table with $1,500, it's too hard to know if the player started with $100 or $10,000, and therefore whether the player won $1,400 or lost $8,500.
Now, we all know if they really wanted to track this stuff they could, but the IRS said they didn't have to and so you, as the gambler, get a pass on table game winnings. The only time you're going to have to fill out a form for cashing in a bunch of chips is if it's over $10,000 -- and that has nothing to do with the IRS; it's just a form to track big-money transactions and is the same thing you'd run into if you tried to buy a car or other big-ticket item with cash.
If you have a question you'd like to submit, click here.
Answer: This brings up some important legal questions that essentially boil down to a difference between what you're supposed to do and what most people do.
According to IRS regulations, you are supposed to report any gambling winnings over $600 in any calendar year. That's from any combination of slots, video poker or table games (like blackjack).
Now, how many people do you think really do that? Yeah, exactly.
The law requires the casinos to fill out the 1099 miscellaneous income voucher for any slot or video poker winning over $1,200, but the same regulations do not apply for table games. Essentially, the Nevada casinos said it was impossible to track play at table games, and the IRS believed them. Their argument -- and it's a fairly decent one -- is that if someone walks away from a blackjack table with $1,500, it's too hard to know if the player started with $100 or $10,000, and therefore whether the player won $1,400 or lost $8,500.
Now, we all know if they really wanted to track this stuff they could, but the IRS said they didn't have to and so you, as the gambler, get a pass on table game winnings. The only time you're going to have to fill out a form for cashing in a bunch of chips is if it's over $10,000 -- and that has nothing to do with the IRS; it's just a form to track big-money transactions and is the same thing you'd run into if you tried to buy a car or other big-ticket item with cash.
If you have a question you'd like to submit, click here.
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