Page 24 - January 2007 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Start a Casino Logbook
Keep Track of your Wins and Losses—You May Be Surprised
Iby Gail Anders
t’s the New Year and time for New Year resolutions. Like many people, one of the things I always
resolve is to get more organized. I’m a casino player and 2007 was a pretty lucky year for me at the
gambled. You also must keep any ATM receipts, cancelled checks or bank statements showing casino transactions to back up your logbook. e idea is that your logbook has to be as accurate as possible.
I’ll leave the professional audit advice to a CPA, but at least with a logbook, you’ll have a good start of showing your gambling records. I keep my logbook on my computer, in the spreadsheet program, Microsoft Excel, but you can also keep it simply in a notebook.
If you visit a casino more than a few times a year, keep a logbook.Iheardaboutaplayerwhohitalargeprogressive jackpot on a New Year’s Eve. She had been losing all year long, but didn’t have any way to prove her losses and ended up paying the full tax on the big jackpot amount.
I found that keeping my logbook also helped me realize how much I was winning and losing. Casino players tend to use selective memory and remember only their wins and minimize their losses. If you keep a log, it can give you a reality check and an account of the money you spend at the casino. It’s worth the time to do—and who knows—it may save you lots of taxes when you hit that Big One.
Gail Anders writes for travel magazines, and lives in Laguna Beach and Bridgehampton, New York. She says she loves to play in Southern California casinos.
casinos in Southern California.
I kept all my W2-Gs, of course, and better than that, at
the beginning of 2006 I followed through on one of my resolutions and started my own casino logbook. So just a few weeks ago, I took a look at my logbook, and, boy, was I surprised. I realized while I won more than I lost, I had losses to deduct from my winnings, so I wasn’t going to have to pay as much in taxes as I originally thought!
Yes,UncleSamdemandsashareofourluckatthecasino. And from past experience,
Social Security number before they will pay you. Be certain to always carry a valid form of identi cation with you when you visit a casino. Some casinos even have jackpot winners sign forms attesting that the Social Security number they give to the casino is correct.
Casinos are required to send a copy of the W-2G to the IRS, and players are required to list jackpot winnings when lingtheirincometax.TheIRSallowsyoutodeduct
I found that if you don’t keep a record or diary of your casino play, you don’t know what you’ve won, or more importantly, lost. at gure is a key element in determining your taxes, not to mention your future play at the casino.
As many of you know, the
on a W2-G form all players’ jackpots over $1,199 on slot machines or other games. e W2-G lists your name, address and Social Security number. When you win a jackpot of over $1,199, casinos require your proper identi cation and
A good casino logbook should contain the following information: the date and casino where you
“...keeping my logbook also helped
me realize how much I was winning and losing. Casino players tend to use selective memory and remember only
their wins and minimize their losses.”
gambling losses up to the amount of your winnings. And, you can only do this
if you have documentation of your losses. Keeping a diary or logbook, therefore, is the best way to do this.
IRS requires casinos to report
played; the type of game you played—(slots, blackjack, poker, etc,); and your wins and losses for each session or game.
If you are ever audited by the IRS, you will have at least the basic records to show where, when and how much you
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