Page 20 - February 2005 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
Tax Help: Casino Winnings and Taxes
...Continued from page 19
stated by the IRS, but most gamblers put these in their log just as they do for all their gambling wins. And most tax preparers recommend that you lump them all together, if they’re directly related to gambling, since this practice has stood up in past tax court decisions.
This becomes an important issue if you itemize on Schedule A. If all kinds of gambling wins are lumped together, then perhaps you’ll be able to offset some (or all) of your drawing winnings by taking your gambling losses as a deduction, up to the amount of your wins. As always, you need to talk to a professional tax preparer who can analyze the details of your personal situation.
(MC) If you happen to win a prize in a drawing/tournament, you can definitely report the fair market value of that prize if it is less than the amount reported to you on 1099-misc. But you are going to have to attach a note to your tax return explaining why the amount you are reporting is less than the amount that is shown in your tax record. To determine the fair market value, I tell my clients to save things like newspaper ads indicating the price of the prize that they have won.
Let’s say you won a big-screen TV in a drawing where you had to earn tickets by gambling. The value of that TV was reported to you on a 1099-misc. Since the reason you won that prize was through the direct act of gambling, it is technically gambling income. However, if you try to offset losses against that win, it will bounce out of the IRS computers, and you will have to explain your situation to someone at the IRS. What one Las Vegas local casino has done, however, was obtain a determination from the gaming specialist at the local IRS office in Las Vegas to issue that amount on a W2G. (Yes, there actually is a position called gaming specialist in the Las Vegas IRS office!) If we could just convince other casinos to follow suit, it would solve a lot of the headaches that face today’s gambler.
e same logic applies for invited guest tournaments and events. If previous gambling was a criterion for the invite and you are expected and even required, albeit tacitly, to gamble to receive future invitations, then the winnings from these tournaments and drawings should be considered gambling income and not prizes.
( JS) One professional put it this way, when asked if the nature of the casino paperwork determined how to report something: “ e character of the income is not changed by the form on which the casino reports it — 1099 or W-2G.”
Marissa Chien is an enrolled agent and the president of her own tax-accounting firm, Advantage Tax Plus, Inc., as well as a successful gambler herself. She can be reached at 702-207-1040 or advantagetaxplus@aol.com
Jean Scott, the “Queen of Comps,” is the author of the best-selling book The Frugal Gambler, a casino guide for thrifty low rollers, plus the sequel, More Frugal Gambling, now available at www.FrugalGambler.biz. Featured on “Dateline NBC,” “48 Hours,” and The Travel Channel, she stresses sensible, responsible gambling and shows how to stretch out casino fun time whatever your gambling bankroll. You can order Tax Help for the Frugal Gambler at Jean Scott’s Web site http://www.FrugalGambler.biz
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$1,000 Guaranteed No Limit Texas Hold’em at 10 a.m.
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No Limit Texas Hold’em Tournament at 10 a.m.
$13 buy-in for $1,000 chips; $5 re-buys for $1,000 chips;
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$2,000 Guaranteed No Limit Texas Hold’em at 6:30 p.m. $18 buy-in, no re-buys.
FRIDAYS
$1,000 Guaranteed No Limit Texas Hold’em at 10 a.m.
$13 buy-in, no re-buys.
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Registration opens at 2:30 p.m. each day and is limited to 33 entrants. $5 buy-in receives $1,000 in tournament chips; $5 bounties; $5 re-buys receive
Page 20 FEBRUARY 2005
February 2005 Poker Plays