Gambling and Income Tax

Several years ago an evaluation was made that over eight billion dollars would be wagered on the Super Bowl of that year, where possibly one percent was gambled in a legal fashion in Nevada, and the other bets were made illegally on websites, on unofficial wagers and in office pools. These figures are colossal and definitely ensure that the people from the tax authorities get their gastric juices flowing just at the thought of all that tax income pouring in.

The main gambling day is Super Bowl Sunday and you can place wagers on almost every connection to the game including events which appear minor. As appealing as ever are internet wagers. However, without any connection to the actual gambling event, all gamblers are mandated to enter into their income tax returns all winning reports. Nobody actually knows the degree of earnest people bear this responsibility.

The Phoenix district manager for H&R Block, Sue Taylor, quotes a late survey taken by H&R Block and this points in the direction of a third of the survey responses had no awareness that tax was payable on their gambling wins. 

It was claimed by a senior federal tax analyst, John W. Roth, that on the assumption you succeed in an unofficial office pool. From the technical point of view this has to be reported. However, according to him, the Internal Revenue Service has more important concerns with online gambling because credit cards make this easier to monitor.

Losses in gambling can be deducted, however just to the degree to reduce to your winnings with. This means, you cannot use net losses for making deductions. On the assumption you deduct losses, the IRS demands that your gambling events be accurately accounted for. 
Monitoring is carried out by the bigger gamblers. When requesting, many casinos do supply monitoring cards.

For the IRS, it doesn’t matter whether the income is from gambling or investments or anything else as it’s all revenue for them.

Back to Online Gambling News - February 2009
Online Casino Latest News
Online Casino News Archive