The Greedy Hand

[UptightTO]

The queen of mean Leona Helmsly was once quoted " only little people pay taxes"  which came to mind when a W2 for an $1100.00 jackpot was handed me after the attendant counted out 11 $100 bills.  I commented how silly it was for the government to be so greedy they had to get their "fair" share of my small jackpot while a guy playing high dollar Blackjack can walk out of a casino with tens of thousands and not pay a dime.  The didn't help matters when he responded by saying the process of hand pays and issuing W2's keeps a lot of people employed.  Since then I've always thought of these good folks as employees of the I.R.S. whose paychecks are covered by Leonas Helmsly's "little people. "
Here's the rub. Their are of course high rollers that play slots and VP but by in large VP players are just average folks who play recreationally and occasionally get the big hand that pays $1100.00 dollars or more. And since it's trackable by a machine that records your every play the government takes full advantage.  But what about the guy who bets thousands on a single hand of blackjack or a single roll of the dice at the crap tables?  If they were issued a w2 everytime they win $1100.00 the game would stop until the I.R.S.disquised as casino emplyees trotted out with the W2. 
 
But what folly and unessesary expense is the result of all the record keeping. Win/loss statements, logging your receipts, traking your losses,auditing and on and on it goes when the reality is most folks don't make a red cent when all is said and done.  Where am am I going wrong or do some of you agree the govenrment should just stay out of our hair the few days of the year we want to escape and get away from it all. 
 
 
 

[mammajamma]

seeing you should get a w-2g for single jackpots of $1199.00 or more, you really got screwed

[UptightTO]

Thanks for the correction...jackpots of $1199 or more earn a w2....BTW...I don't begrudge high rollers large unreported jackpots ..I am not a soak the rich idelogue..for the record I think the whole idea of an income tax is contra anything our founding fathers had in mind...that said...and in as few words as possible...taxing casino jackpots is a collossal waste of time and money...

[Quad Deuces]

..for the record I think the whole idea of an income tax is contra anything our founding fathers had in mind...that said...and in as few words as possible...taxing casino jackpots is a collossal waste of time and money...This.  I cannot believe the American people put up with the nonsense.  It's all about control and eliminating financial privacy. They've done a wonderful job.

[Lucky Larry]

That's exactly why we place all of our $millions in off-shore Cayman accounts and use a Swiss account as our "401G" account. I hate paying taxes for airports like McLaren, Interstate highways, and State Troopers (who might stop me on the I-10 Houston/Lake Charles Casino-bohn), and public schools...oh wait I forgot taxes paid my salary for 40 years which is how we accumulated several hundred $million. Thank you.

Seems like those rich table players get away with everything! I heard once, "He who owns the gold makes the rules."

[UptightTO]

Larry..you miss my point...I believe in paying taxes.....and have no issue with people who win big but the greatest majority lose...so why all the record keeping...thats all..

[ko king]

Larry..you miss my point...I believe in paying taxes.....and have no issue with people who win big but the greatest majority lose...so why all the record keeping...thats all..


It's typical federal and state government and there's a word for it, seems like it's cluster****. Create something out of nothing, it's good for the economy you know. I'm like you though, I don't mind paying the taxes but there should be no W2-G's issued for say less than a $50K handpay. There are very few people that actually come out ahead and I don't personally know any of them, I've played for over 20 years and one year I finished ahead. I don't have federal taxes withheld but would like to see them take an additional 2% and do away with the paperwork. I was audited twice and the auditors looked for every opportunity they could find so they could take away any and every deduction they could, it was the most intrusive and degrading experience I have ever seen, I felt like a criminal. Government does not work for the people, especially middle class and the poor, the rules and regulations are even tilted in a manner to make compliance tougher when they call your hand. I am self-employed and own a small business and had to fight them for every single deduction my accountant took, they pushed hard to eliminate some of my gaming losses which added up to far more than the winnings but I only took the allowable amount which was losses up to the amount of winnings. When I was able to provide paperwork and proof to back up my losses they decided to bring up the days and times the jackpots were hit. Most of my handpays occured on weekdays between the hours of 4 pm and 8 pm and since I claimed a deduction for my work truck they saw an opportunity to take away a large percentage of that deduction, never mind the fact the casino was located less than 1/10th of a mile away from my route home from work. They ended up taking away 33% of my work truck deductions which included depreciation, fuel and other auto related deductions and it cost me big money. In the end they proved themselves to be the real crooks and there wasn't a thing I could do about it other than shut up and write the check.

[faygo]

KoKing, that had to be maddening. Wouldn't you love to audit the auditor?

[ko king]

KoKing, that had to be maddening. Wouldn't you love to audit the auditor?

I don't think I would have the stomach to put anyone thru it, these auditors go thru months of training to learn how to be callous, uncaring and manipulative. The audit took about eight months to complete and they put you thru plain old fashioned hell, which is part of their overall plan, beat and wear you down until you are ready to just give up and pay whatever they say. I developed an understanding as to how people accused of a crime may admit to doing something they never did just to end the struggle, at the start I planned to hold my ground but I finally just conceded that you can't fight government. Right after my audit my neighbor got audited to, they are pretty much going door to door in this area. I read an article concerning the IRS and audits that detailed their new plan, right after the Obama administration took over they determined that audits on the big corporations and the wealthy took too much time and money so they were going to concentrate on the middle class and small business. As a result of this decision audits on the big corps and wealthy decreased by almost 30% and audits on the rest of us increased by about 37%. They claim by taking this road and by auditing this group of people they are returning $10 for every $1 spent, I believe it. I heard a figure these auditors are expected to average per hour spent on each case and it was around $3K. By the time they get finished you will feel lucky to escape with your life.

[shadowman]

Just remember to keep good records and, if you itemize deductions, you can subtract all your gambling losses up to the amount of the W2G wins.