If someone has winnings in excess of the standard deduction - as well as gambling losses in excess of the standard deduction BUT lower than their gambling winnings > would/could they not benefit by forgoing the standard deduction and instead itemizing their gambling losses to help offset their gambling “wins”?

Or is this not how it works? Apologies, this isn’t my wheelhouse, just spewing thoughts on here.

If they have both gambling winnings and losses greater than the standard deduction, yes, they should itemize.

I pay the IRS what I choose and so far they seem to be good with it

Unfortunately fair and taxes don't usually belong in the same sentence.

You know they're hiring 77,000 more IRS agents and giving them guns, right?

Lol clowns

People spend all sorts of money on hobbies, yet these aren’t deductible. It doesn’t matter how expensive the hobbies are. If it isn’t a business, or the way a person officially makes a living, it isn’t considered a business expense.

In an ideal world (tax fairness-wise), if the government wanted to tax wealth increase, then they would tax the increase in a person’s net worth year to year, and this would include all sources of income and expenses. We obviously don’t live in a world where government (or anybody, for that matter) has the sort of access to a person’s earning/spending activities. Who knows? We are rapidly approaching that world and it may become a reality sooner than one might believe. Of course that sort of world would bring with it a lot of consequences for life and liberty along with a fairer tax system.

So if someone makes $10 million/year, but immediately spends it all on extravagant vacations, they shouldn't pay any taxes?

Take it to pm or the politics forum please. This thread is about Caesar's rewards

Is Caesars LV and Reno (or any other location) all the same thing? If I get Diamond status playing in Reno, is it just as good?

Yes

Not to get political, but they would have to pass a Constitutional amendment for that. They had to pass one for an income tax, a net worth tax will be exponentially more difficult.

I was just explaining to the poster why allowing gambling deductions against any income would be like taxing net worth. There are all sorts of things a person spends money on which are not tax deductible. There’s no reason why gambling expenditures should be treated any different than all those things under the current tax system.

I wasn’t really advocating for anything. But with a pure income tax, a person who makes $10MM and sits on it is taxed the same as a person who makes $10MM and spends it all. The latter is in almost all cases contributing significantly more to society in a capitalistic system in terms of productivity. Extravagant vacations support a lot of people’s livelihoods.

Fairness may not exactly be the right concept here, but it doesn’t seem like a pure income tax is ideal from a societal benefit standpoint.

That’s not what I said. I was saying that if I go to the casino 20 times in a year and 10 times I lose $1000 each and 10 times I win $1000 each there should be no taxable event since I had no net income gambling that year. I wasn’t saying anything about net worth or expenses or anything. Just netting your wins and losses and paying tax on anything over 0.

Getting this thread back on track and away from politics and taxes:

Can anyone confirm if poker qualifies for the 10x bonus going on at the end of August?

Seems to good to be true and one poster has said poker doesn't qualify, but they just made an unsupported declaration. I have tried digging and calling Ceasars Rewards and haven't seen or heard anything that would suggest poker isn't included.

I don’t think poker is included

That said, chit happens and makes sense to put in a session

As far as “unsupported declaration!”, Caesars Rewards doesn’t always give out alot of details and it’s sometimes a mystery. You said yourself you couldn’t find anything. The last time I played during a 5x it didn’t appear to show up after

There is no taxable event in that case unless you receive tax documents from the casino for your winnings. And even in that case, if you keep records for your losses, they can be used to offset your winnings. So you pay no tax if your net is zero.

What I think someone else was asking was why gambling losses can’t be used to offset other income. For example if your net gambling losses are $10k, he suggested that should be able to lower your tax burden for the year. I was explaining why that isn’t the case.

I think the tax question is hopefully clear now and I have nothing more to say about it.

That's simply not true as a matter of law. Tax documents have no bearing on whether a person legally owes taxes (they do have very high bearing on whether the person reports it obviously). And no, you can't net out your results for the year unless your professional gambler. The current tax law is that every winning gambling session must count as income. Losing sessions may be itemized as deductions up to the amount of winnings. Which is a garbage law, and most people don't follow it (or as you illustrate, don't know it). It's devastating for anyone who isn't itemizing deductions, and also screws people who are itemizing out of other tax breaks by artificially inflating your AGI.

Sidetrack over, sorry all.

To bring back on point, I'm asking Caesars to reinstate some expired RC's. I earned RC's on 12/23/22. I bought in to the Milly Maker on Bravo in May 2023, with the flight on 6/24/23. I definitely played VP on 6/24, and pretty sure I played on 6/23, so either the credits shouldn't have expired at all or I missed it by less than 12 hours. I dunno when the Milly Maker buyin officially counts.

Are you saying if you have 2 blackjack sessions, you win 10,000 and then go back and lose 15,000... you have to declare $10,000 as income and pay taxes on it? If you take the standard deduction and don't itemize.

Yes under the current tax law. I know it’s ridiculous and the vast majority of people wouldn’t do that.

technically that's what you're supposed to do.

Is "session" defined in the statute? As far as I'm concerned, my session starts when I arrive in the casino from another state, and ends when I leave town.

Why would you take a 13k standard deduction when you have a 15k itemized deduction?

Setting aside the question of itemization, why do you think gambling losses in and of themselves should be fully tax deductible? I mean, even stock market losses are not fully deductible in the short term. And that’s an activity the government usually incentivizes, as opposed to gambling.

If you gamble for a living, then all losses are deductible. If you gamble for “fun” then the cost of your fun may not be deductible under certain circumstances. While that certainly isn’t ideal for someone who falls under those circumstances, why is it “ridiculous”. People have all sorts of expensive hobbies and ways to entertain themselves. They don’t typically get to deduct those costs at all. Recreational gamblers actually catch a break not afforded to other thrill seekers.

It’s ridiculous because if I win $2000 then lose $2000 I didn’t have “income”. I should be taxed on the income I have for the year. If I broke even gambling there isn’t income.

The stock example would be if I bought stock at $50 then sold it at $50 then getting taxed on the full $50 despite not actually having income.

IRS regs do get into session and they say moving even to a different table is a new session. Again, patently absurd.