Video Poker Logs for Claiming Losses with IRS

[Quad Deuces]

Post unable to migrate

[ko king]

Geez, I would sure think so. I've kept up with my losses for years and I don't record that much information. I keep the date, casino, estimated amount of hands played, and my results for that day. The paytables for most of the vp I play have been dropped from 98.98% to 97.87% so I'm losing a bit more than I used to, I've learned to use my player's card almost always and take advantage of all my free play offers to minimize my losses. I got checked in 09 and 10 and they accepted what I had, my guess is they felt sorry for me being stupid enough to play.

[mammajamma]

they felt sorry for me being stupid enough to play.Don't feel that way. Just learn to play wisely. I haven't had a W-2G in 4 years but I get paid $1160 for every Royal, AWAK in TDB, etc. and maximize any other play by watching the paytable and customizing my bets to avoid a handpay. Sure takes the stress off of recordkeeping and messing up my other income tax totals.

[BillyJoe]

I was audited for my 2009 return, with the IRS asking for more detail on my loss claim to offset my W2Gs. I provided them copies of my Win/Loss statements from the casinos that I had played at that year. They accepted them without any further questions. Case closed.

[GidgetGadget]

I has to supplement my w/l with a log and bk stment. thank goodness I kp a detailed log.

[BillyJoe]

I has to supplement my w/l with a log and bk stment. thank goodness I kp a detailed log.
I had never heard of a bank statement to support claimed losses. How did that figure in?
 
Additionally, I have always wondered why the IRS would accept a hand-written log. I could write anything down.

[edog743]

It is because the IRS are trusting souls Billyjoe. LOL

[BillyJoe]

It is because the IRS are trusting souls Billy Joe. LOL
So, the IRS would trust the taxpayer to write everything down correctly, but not trust the casino to record W/L records correctly.
 
I know that the casino W/L report is only as accurate as when the Players Card is in, but if I am smart enough to manipulate my Players Card to my advantage, I sure as heck could figure out how to 'compose' a log. I just don't get it.

[ko king]

They've got a lot of nerve as far as I'm concerned even asking someone to prove thier vp gambling losses especially when you can only claim losses up to the amount of winnings. I can find 98.98% payback in this area but I lose my butt everytime I play there, I do far better playing at another casino that offers 97.87% payback. I enjoy playing and fully understand I'm going to lose money because I play a lot and don't appreciate being hassled about it from the IRS. Last year alone I paid $62K in federal and state income taxes so yes they should trust my hand written log and use a little common sense, If I bought $100K worth of merchandise and sold it at -2.13% I lost $2,130. We've got a couple of folks in town that got hooked on $5 & $10 slots that got some huge handpays but in the end they lost everything they had to thier name.I've got a pretty good head on my shoulders and know what I can afford to lose and still enjoy myself.

[backsider]

There was a discussion of this on the Anthony Curtis site many times. I have never been audited, but what point does machine number, tips and all that other confusing info serve? I just hand-record dates, if I won or lost and how much, and casino location. Of course Im like everybody else who offsets all winnings with losses whether Ive lost or not. If I get audited then Ill just make another pass on my log.

Billy, I would think your IRS auditor wasnt on top of his game and you got lucky. What makes them believe you never played without a card or while you hadnt inserted it properly? Does it make sense that theyd accept what could well be incomplete casino statements over the sworn written word of the taxpayer being auditor?

I sure hope I never have to go through it because so many players have written about so many different and conflicting experiences!

Edit: I dont expect the auditors would bother getting into bank statements or ATM information unless they went further into the audit than what they did with Billy. It sounds ominous at that point.